Two weeks to the end of the biggest international fair, the Milan EXPO 2015, and we start to take stock of the most chatted event which has counted more than 15 millions of visitors by now.
The first award came from the world of architecture that rewards the UK with the International Prize for the Best Pavilion Architecture, out of 54 countries all over the world.
Designed by Wolfang Buttress and BDP, in collaboration with Paul Smith and Tristan Simmond, the UK pavilion is a movable structure conceived as a 3D hive where landscape and art are mixed to highlight the importance of bee population and pollination to the production of food.
In the centre of a natural wildflower meadow, walking through a fruit orchard, visitors could discover the magical golden orb, which represents a temporary honeycomb made of fine lattice steel.
The three metres tall structure is connected with a real hive monitored by the Nottingham Trent University, and at night the movement of bees is used to illuminate the pavilion, meanwhile the column pulsates and buzzes with the noise of a real bee colony.
A multi sensorial experience from start to finish for any visitors, indeed, which has strongly impressed the jury from the Italian National Institute of Architecture (INARCH), the National Builders Association (ANCE), National Council of Architects and Association of Engineering.
“In the UK Pavilion you can appreciate the synthesis of complex relationship between engineering, art and architecture” as the BPA Prize jury said “ that has produced a seemingly simple, lightweight and temporary structure, which appreciates the effective integration between form and content.”
The 6 million pounds Hive has been designed by the awarded creator Buttress as a proper independent structure, that after the 31st of October with the closure of the Milan Expo, would be dismantled and rebuilt on another site in the UK.
On the official website of the International Prize “Le Architetture dei Padiglioni di Expo Milano 2015” is still possible to vote for the best pavilion and give your preference as popular jury until the 20th of October.
