article about Michele De Lucchi about Expo 2015 in Milan. Pavillon Z-ero, Pavillion San Paolo Waterstone

1. MICHELEDELUCCHI
MASTEROFTHECONTEMPORARYBY DAMIANO FOSSATI
Milan is currently hosting Expo 2015 that gives Italy the opportunity to rethink its
geopolitical role in a field that is highly appreciated abroad: the food processing industry.
In fact in the field of nutrition Italy a great power and the theme “feeding the planet,
energy for life” is a perfect subject for a country that encounters difficulties to get out of
the current recession. But what is an Expo?
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3. The Milan Expo follows quite literally the BIE (bureau
international des expositions) prescription “An Expo is a global event
that aims at educating the public, sharing innovation, promoting
progress and fostering cooperation. It is organized by a host country
thatinvitesothercountries,companies,internationalorganisations,the
private sector, the civil society and the general public to participate.
Due to the diversity of their participants, from top decision makers
to children, Expos offer a multifaceted event where extraordinary
exhibitions,diplomaticencounters,businessmeetings,publicdebates
and live shows take place at the same time.”
Expo aims to be the representation of the highest-reached levels
of development in the chosen theme: for Expo 2015 it would be
the food processing industry opening up for the agricultural sector
in the field of sustainable development, common well-being and
the fight against hunger. Once the event is over, it will also leave a
charter with guidelines for action to be taken at the global level as its
lasting legacy: The Milan Charter (www.carta.milano.it) The expo
theme attracts interest from all over the world as 144 countries and
3 international organizations demonstrate investing in a country like
Italy with a long stagnant economy.
Italian architect Michele De Lucchi has been involved in the
project with several different pavilions inside the master-plan by the
internationalcommitteeofarchitects(StefanoBoeri,RickyBurdettand
Jacques Herzog) and he decided to develop the sustainability theme
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4. of the expo focusing on the relationship between man and nature.
In addition to the design the two introductory pavilions at
the north-west main gate, the Pavilion Zero and Expo Centre, he
has been developing the Intesa Sanpaolo Pavilion “Waterstone” as
well as the itinerant infopoint “Agorà”, the Unicredit pavilion at
Porta Nuova’s new development and defining the new exposition
space of one of the most important sculptures of Milan: the Pietà
Rondanini by Michelangelo. Pavilion Zero and Expo Centre are
designed as two fragments of the crust of the earth. Clad with
the same regular spruce boards they represent a kind of index of
the main themes of Expo.
Pavilion Zero is the first to greet visitors arriving at Expo
Milan, forming the west entries. Assigned to introduce the theme
of “Feeding the planet – Energy for life” the pavilion tells visitors
about the wealth of aspects inherent in this title. It is conceived as
a portion of the earth’s crust.
“The crust is a strange thing: normally it is formed by itself
through the gradual transformation of the matter’s surface. Thus
becoming the shape. A crust of dirt will form time by time, layer by
layer, leaving its mark in the subsequent seams of sedimentation,”
says De Lucchi.
The two steel and wood buildings take the form of the earth’s
crust, while suggesting a new type of landscape, halfway between
the natural and the artificial, and reflect the symbolic value of the
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5. planet in our lives, the care we must take of Mother Earth, and the
principle that it encloses all the elements that provide nourishment
and energy for our planet: “the crust is our landscape, our sphere of
life, the goal of all possible safeguards, the most tender and delicate.
The crust of the hills, the mountains, the plains, covered in moss
that produces forest and vegetation, grass and trees, colors, and
fragrant fresh air … this crust of lava lets us think how important
and delicate is the crust on which we walk as it protects us from
the red hot core on which our planet rotates. We have dedicated
our progress to go to the moon and explore the universe, but we
know little of what we have under our feet” continues the architect.
From the architectonic point of view beside the master-plan based
upon two main axes (cardo and decumano) of the ancient Roman
camp, a huge innovation in the Expo layout is achieved out by the nine
thematic clusters, an unprecedented cultural and organizational insight
in the story of this event. They are conceptually a valid alternative to
the “joint pavilions” of the past expos where countries with limited
resources share an impersonal space: clusters are attractive and define a
really innovative way to blend architecture, landscape and main theme.
Theclusterconceptrotatesaroundamaincontentdefininghighquality
spaceswithsquaresandthepossibilitytohostmultifunctionalactivities.
Allclustersreflectthesameunderlyingidea:thecreationofaspace
primarily conceived as a venue for shared experiences related to a
pressing and crucial topic for mankind, and capable of symbolically
bringing together often different nations and realities. There are the
Rice cluster and the Cocoa and Chocolate cluster, the Coffee cluster
and Fruit and Legumes, the Cereal and Tubers, the Spices Cluster
and the Bio-Mediterranean cluster, one dedicated to islands, sea and
food and one to the arid zones.
MicheleDeLucchi(1951)isagenerousmaster.HeborninFerrara,
and soon after graduating in architecture become Adolfo Natalini’s
assistantatthefacultyinFirenze.In1979hemetwithEttoreSottsass
who became his mentor and guide in the most important circles of
italian industrial design including radical Memphis and Alchimia.
“Ettore Sottsass has been my mentor, he taught me how to search
richnesswithoutrichness,howtodopreciousthingswithoutprecious
materials,... he taught me to try to do very rich things keeping it
simple... and this is somehow his legacy”.
De Lucchi gained international recognition both as architect as
well as designer and won important international prizes including
three “Compasso d’oro” (1989, 1991, 1994) and the gold medal for
Italian Architecture at the Triennale of 2003, His work has been
featured in the most important collections all around the world.
“Style was always a problem...it’s the task of a designer , artist or
architect to present new views and perspectives. Creating new fields
of vision also means imitating and perfecting what already exists.
After all, we still continue to design cutlery, crockery and tables,
although there is already no shortage of tables. The fact is that we
want these objects to surprise us again and again. That’s why we
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6. articulated in 10 dark rooms that define the history of humanity and
foodin12chaptersoftheinstallationwiththeirassociatedkeywords:
The archive of the world/ Memory
The arts of man/ Knowledge
The realm of nature/ Origins
The taming of plants/ Home
The taming of animals/ Community
Theatre of the world/ Convivium
Breeding, cultivating, hunting, fishing / Ingenuity
Gathering,transporting,conserving,transforming/Economy
From Rural to industrial / Revolution
The virtual square of food / Speculation
The paradox of waste / Catastrophe
The pursuit of balance / Harmony
The first room focuses on the knowledge experience. A wide wood
backdrop is placed in front of the entrance to show the extraordinary
spectacleofknowledge.The“theatrum”isawoodenapparatusinspired
design new ones” he says “however, what I often find missing is
curiosity. I’ve even observed this at the design schools where I teach”
“There are products and there are projects. Products are made
for the market and projects are visions. Both are important types
of design. However, good projects rarely turn into good products.”
Going back to pavilion Zero, De Lucchi adds: “The crust is our
environment, our landscape and our stage where we play out our
preferred roles. It deserves to be in the most important museum of
the earth, however it does not yet exist and will never exist because
there can never be a museum so important.”
Reproduced inside the pavilion are ten caves in a semi darkness
againstwhichtheexhibitsstandoutclearly.Everyareaisdedicatedto
adifferenthumanculturalproduct.Therectangularpavilionsoccupy
an area of about 10,000 sqm. From the construction point of view, it
consists of spurge board and partly practicable tiers, resembling the
schematizedcontoursusedtoindicategroundreliefs.Thestratification
of curves reproduces the earth’s crust, with mountains hills and a
broad central valley with a huge tree.
Pavilion Zero, “Divinus Halitus Terrae” as the starting point of
all the History, is the tale of mankind on the globe. The space is
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8. bythe“archiveoftheworld”byGiulioCamilloDelminioandconsists
of a huge scene composed by small drawers that contain “loci” of
human knowledge inside a sort of architectural encyclopaedia. The
pavilion is developed in collaboration with ONU for the programme
Zero hunger challenge.
Passing under the stage it is possible to access the second room
where a huge tree trunk welcomes visitors as an emblem of the story
ofhumanorigins,onthewallsurfaceabigscreenof600sqmprojects
a loop of short competition movies about food and hunger. The next
room, a collection of specimens of seeds from all over the world,
all catalogued in small caskets juxtaposed to form two continuous
walls, aims to show the importance of plant biodiversity and tells the
story of the domestication of vegetables as the first great revolution
of mankind in the fertile crescent 10000 years ago.
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9. The fourth room is dedicated to “the domestication of animals”
where a series of white sculptures on scale 1:1 of several animal
species illustrate the story of domestication not only as a synonym for
survival but especially of evolution. Once you leave the room you are
in the centre of the pavilion, outside, outdoors, where one finds the
small sculpture “La conoscenza” by Mimmo Palladino in the shade
of the big tree of the room of “origin”. The path moves on with two
rooms that contemplate human evolution, human activities such
as “breeding, farming, hunting and fishing”, as well as “gathering,
transporting,preservingandtransforming”,withgreatmodelsofthe
evolution and transformation of human landscape from the rural
environment to the modern city with the scaled model industrial
settlements of Crespi D’Adda, Detroit and the Chicago Port Area.
The next rooms decode food and hunger in our contemporary
consumerist society, firstly in the “virtual food a stock market”
where monitors display the stock market speculation in the food
and advertising sector, and we pass a huge amount of wasted food
in the room “zero waste, zero losses”…
I could go on in detail but have limited space for this article. I
would recommend our readers to look at the Expo 2015 website, or
if possible go and visit Milan before the end of October! n
www.expo2015.org
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