area 110 | expo 2010 shanghai

architect: Studio Archea

location: expo 2010 shanghai

year: 2010

The pavilion is, as requested by the Expo, a simple rectangular box measuring 78 by 28 metres, with a completely free interior forming a neutral space, without any intermediate pillars, capable of hosting the installations of the cities participating in the event, which have later been chosen as Bologna, Shenzen and Seoul. As the work is part of the cooperation program between the Expo and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the project, entrusted to Archea as the winner of a competition by invitations, has transformed the hypothesis of the industrial shed, the theme of the neutral box, into a mechanism for the diffusion of natural light. The space is thus illuminated throughout the day without any energy consumption. The roof has been conceived as a shed structure, crossed by beams whose steel structure has been covered in order to form a sequence of reflecting surfaces that diffuse the light from above. The construction has been designed so as to make it possible to reuse and recover the building, and it may therefore be disassembled and reassembled in another location. The entire construction is made in steel structures and technologies without cemented joints, and it is therefore possible to reuse more than 90% of the components. The non-structural outer walls have been built and designed as thick and highly insulated layered structures which comprise, from the interior towards the exterior, the installation of simple drywall panels perforated by a sequence of square windows of various dimensions arranged obliquely with respect to the vertical, an interior air chamber, metal panels with an intermediate layer in polyurethane foam providing thermal and acoustic insulation, fixed to the load-bearing columns made in simple I-profiles, a second air chamber in the layer occupied by the secondary substructure, necessary to support the casings and the outer skin, consisting of aluminium frames covered with silicon fabric, which turn the building box into a soft surface with a vibratory motion. The shell, half-way between the convex spatialism of Castellani and the more recent optical experiences, “necessarily” avoid to compete, on a volumetric level, with the other exhibition pavilions, instead assuming a role of interval or passage, a covered square or loggia which may be crossed thanks to the four large doors placed opposite one another, which make it possible to walk through the pavilion and thus assuring a continuous path along the Urban Best Practices area.

Laura Andreini (Firenze1964), Marco Casamonti (Firenze 1965), Giovanni Polazzi (Firenze 1959), fondano nel 1988 lo Studio Archea a cui si associa dal 1999 Silvia Fabi. Gli interessi e le attività di ricerca dello studio muovono dal paesaggio alla città, dall’edificio al design e pur essendo prioritariamente incentrate sull’architettura, i progetti spaziano dalla grafica all’editoria o alla creazione di eventi nell’ambito del dibattito disciplinare contemporaneo. Lo Studio Archea ha partecipato a molti tra i più importanti concorsi e consultazioni nazionali e internazionali di architettura ottenendo numerosi riconoscimenti e premi. Nell’ambito dell’industrial design lo studio ha realizzato alcuni brevetti collegati alla progettazione di prodotti ed elementi in ambito illuminotecnico e dei materiali da costruzione quale l’ideazione del cotto ricomposto sviluppato e realizzato da due aziende leader nel settore dei componenti per l’architettura. Tale attività segue una intensa collaborazione con il mondo dell’industria delle costruzioni al fine di concretizzare una reale e fattiva sinergia tra cultura del progetto e cultura della produzione in grado di permettere allo studio di compiere un lavoro di sperimentazione e ricerca a partire dall’uso dei materiali. Attualmente nelle sei sedi, Firenze, Roma, Genova, Milano, Pechino e Dubai, lavorano circa ottanta persone tra architetti, designer, grafici, provenienti da diverse zone e università del mondo.