BAHRAIN PAVILION
Restricted
Competition, Milano EXPO 2015, 2nd prize
Within the
zero degree of a landscape, visitors rediscover their basic attitudes towards
nature: attraction and distance. Basic framework preserve the logics of the
human behaviour within wilder contexts. primitive huts appear like linear cages
to contain the humans and remind them their coohordinates. Like in a reverse
zoo, the visitors of the expo start behaving like safe explorers, with a
complete equipement of science and safety. No more primitive, once totally
immersed into the atmospheres of the biotopes, they start analysing the
condition of nature from their privileged viewpoints. Like scientist in a camp,
like rangers within their fire lookout towers they are ready to give the alarm
signal. The architecture of the pavilion has the role to bring the visitors of
the expo in touch with the most intimate ecologies of Bahrain. and bring them
back. a framework is conceived as a system of staircases and platforms to
“navigate” into five scenarios. the “terraces” provide privileged, unexpected,
intimate viewpoints on the exhibition. the framework traces the borders of the
exhibition but, at the same time, it is conceived to help the visitors expand
the boundaries of their perception and totally feel immerse into an original
state of nature: eden.
Architecture
works as a catalyst between originary landscapes and a popular event in the
public space: expo. the “Laboratory” under the pressure of thousands of
tourists turns into a “Belvedere” and the result of the scientific research can
even be the discovery of the panorama.
DESIGN TEAMFrancesco Librizzi Studio
Bureau Bas Smets
CLIENT
Ministry of Culture Kingdom of Bahrain
COLLABORATORS
Laura Bragalini
Andrea Vivera
Giuseppe Vedovati