Fields of Ideas

Fields of
Ideas

„Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life“

EXPO 2015 in Milan showcases the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, offering answers to the major future challenges of human nutrition. In the context of a conceptual master plan, this world exhibition introduces a clear paradigm shift by dispensing with prestigious monumental buildings, and by presenting itself rather as a “sustainable AgroFood Park”.

“What we’ve learnt from previous global exhibitions is that visitors enjoy an immersive experience when they visit a pavilion. They want to be able to pick something up, touch it, move it. That’s why we wanted to bring something extraordinary to Milan, something that would forever remain engrained on visitors’memories.”

Dietmar Schmitz | Generalkommissar des Deutschen Pavillons

Authentic image

The German Pavilion offers visitors to EXPO 2015 insight into innovative and at times surprising approaches from Germany in human nutrition in the future, and invites visitors to take action themselves. Germany depicts agriculture as a strong, modern sector and an intrinsic aspect of its unique cultural landscape.

The pavilion offers visitors a new and quite unexpected Germany: open, warm, friendly and whimsical – clearly bringing the pavilion’s motto to life: “Fields of Ideas”.

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Freely accessible wooden deck

The German pavilion translates the German field and meadow landscape into its architecture in a striking and surprising way: a building consisting of a gently sloping landscape level with a freely accessible surface and a thematic exhibition inside.

Formally, the architecture is reminiscent of a “supplanted landscape” set in the pavilion’s premises which gradually slopes upward to a height of 10 meters. The German pavilion then applies the concept of stylised fields and meadows in great detail. The use of different native woods, with varied grains and tones, creates a highly distinctive design.

Dovetailing architecture and exhibition

In this landscape, with clearly discernible fields, stylised plants grow as “idea seedlings” up from the exhibition to the exterior surface, creating a large, protective canopy. These are the connecting elements, dovetailing the exterior and interior, the architecture and the exhibition itself. The unusual, organic flowing lines express pioneering innovations inspired by nature.

The Solar Trees

Thanks to integration of the pioneering organic photovoltaic technology (OPV), the energy-producing “solar trees” were created from the “idea seedlings”.

The German Pavilion is the first large international architecture project, in which the innovative products are used. Unlike conventional solar modules, the German Pavilion architectures had the possibility to use not only an existing technology here, but to design the flexible, leaf-integrated OPV modules to their optical appearance based on their own ideas, and to integrate them into the whole design of the pavilion.

“With this innovative technology, we developed a flexible system that offered almost unlimited design and application potential. Whether on buildings or in public spaces, next to railway stations, or squares—even mobile objects such as trucks could be fitted out.”

Thomas Burkard | Managing Partner at SCHMIDHUBER

A place to relax

On the landscape level, the visitor embarks on a pleasurable and stimulating journey marked by exciting perspectives onto the textile leaf canopy – an intriguing interplay of light and shade, of relaxation and discovery. This is where visitors are offered the first “teasers” – from above down through the planting “holes” right into the heart of the exhibition.

The highest point of the open visitor route offers an impressive panoramic view of the pavilion, the vibrant visitor activities taking place below, and the sweeping EXPO grounds all the way down to the EXPO lake.

International visitors

The German restaurant for 350 guests with a freely accessible outdoor seating area is located in the southwest corner of the German pavilion. From the restaurant, visitors have an unobstructed view of the event stage and the outdoor cultural program. Adjacently, a sweeping landscape tribune invites guests to take a seat. This area, the “German Piazza”, is the central and very lively spot where people can meet and interact.