Images: Hufton+Crow
The first pictures of the UK pavilion at the World Expo in Milan, which opens to visitors at the beginning of May, have been revealed. Built by Yorkshire-based contractor Stage One, the temporary structure will promote the UK at the world exhibition until the end of October. A team led by British artist Wolfgang Buttress, project manager Rise and architect BDP won the competition to design the £6m pavilion in May 2014.
Commissioned by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), this year’s pavilion has been designed in response to the exposition’s theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. The design of the 1,910 sq m pavilion on the expo site north-west of Milan’s city centre is inspired by the role of the bee in the global ecosystem.
"The challenges associated with the Expo project were the compressed programme, the complex and intricate nature of the Hive, which has 169,300 components, and the operational issues of working on a large and busy Expo site."
Mark Johnson, Stage One
It is split into five sections through which visitors will progress. First is an orchard of British fruit trees, then there is a wildflower meadow, followed by a terrace, before the heart of the pavilion – a golden “beehive”. The final space is a public auditorium below the terrace that will be used for events during the expo.
The centrepiece of the pavilion is a 14 cubic metre lattice structure made from almost 170,000 aluminium components. The elements were fabricated at Stage One’s factory in Tockwith, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, before being numbered and shipped to Italy, where the building was erected.
The lattice form has a spherical void hollowed from its centre to allow visitors to enter the “golden orb” and experience being within a beehive. Audio-visual devices within the structure are digitally linked to real hives, so the space buzzes with the sounds of living bees.
Mark Johnson, managing director at Stage One, said he was extremely happy with how the project is progressing: “The project is in great shape and almost complete and we’re very pleased with the result.
“The challenges associated with the Expo project were the compressed programme, the complex and intricate nature of the Hive, which has 169,300 components and the operational issues of working on a large and busy Expo site,” he continued.
This year’s pavilion follows Heatherwick Studio’s acclaimed “Seed Cathedral”, which represented the UK at the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and won the gold prize for best design at the trade fair.
