Austrian Pavilion - EXPO 2015 Milano

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'Austria. Naturally yours.'

The Austrian Pavilion for the Expo 2015 in Milano, designed and eaten by its visitors.
proposed by Penda and Alexander Daxböck

'Feeding the Planet' - the overal topic of the 2015 Expo in Mailand - gives Austria the chance to show what is really great about food in Austria - the quality. No other country has more organic food from local farmers in shops and foodmarkets. The reason for that - Austria's size. Being a small country implies short ways from locally produced food and products to its costumers with the guarantee of being fresh, pure and healthy.

In times of increasing food scandals, GMO's and worldwide cooperations owning our food and water, creating an awareness of the importance of regional and seasonal food is significant. This quality and mindset of local production together with the idea of participation form the basis of the main design principle of the proposal for the Austrian Pavilion.

The concept of the Austrian Expo Pavilion 2015 is based on a wooden structural frame asking for the visitor's creativity to seed plants on its structure and the space inbetween to transform the pavilion into an object taken over by organic food during the duration of the Expo.

Mai 2015 August 2015 Oktober 2015

With the seeding, growing and harvesting of the plants by its' visitors, the pavilion will be in a constant change of appereance during the 7 months of the exhibition. During the summer months of the Expo visitors are asked to fill the gaps between the timber structure with seeds of vegetables, fruits or herbs. The structure is a frame for 'home-grown' food and the visitors are becoming the main designers, decorating the pavilion with plants of their choice.

Sequence and profile of space - Exhibition area

Reconnect people with their food - excite, inspire and engage them.

Therefore pots are handed over to the guests at the entrance, from where they turn onto an exhibition ramp of 820sqm - partly outside, partly inside - constantly surrounded by the main structure. On this exhibition ramp local plants and seeds are shown, to communicate an understanding of their lifecycle and the passion of people who are involved in this process. Visitors are offered a closer insight on how our food gets seeded and treated while it grows, how it gets picked and harvested and the ingredients get combined for traditional Austrian cuisine, wine or schnaps.

It does matter what we eat should be the main message of the exhibition brought to the visitor‘s mind.

The ramp will end up at the restaurant, where all vegetables, fruits and herbs which are planted by the visitors will be prepared and used by the kitchen for traditional Austrian dishes and specialities.

Sectional sequence of the pavilion

X-ray section

Main elements of the pavilion

Elevation - Accessibility

At the beginning of the Expo, the pavilion will be more or less a 'naked' structural grid of 3.6m, executed in a quadriple timber construction with a squared profile of 8cm length. A modular system based on a regular grid, enables the pavilion on the one hand to react easily on an increasing number of visitors by implementing more timbers and more pots and on the other hand to be quickly constructed / deconstructed and reused afterwards
or parts of it.

View Main Entrance

Floorplans - Groundfloor (wooden deck), 1st Floor

Longitudinal Section

Longitudinal Section - Close Up

Cross Section - Close Up

Reconnect.

Excite.

Inspire.

Engage.

Being a main part of this transformation and experiencing the exhibition with all the senses, should create a bond between the visitors and the pavilion and treasure Austria‘s position as a place for healthy, high quality products and a sustainable way of production.