Main Ecourbanism COPAGRI Pavilion: ‘Love IT’

COPAGRI Pavilion: ‘Love IT’

Miralles Tagliabue EMBT designs a dome for COPA GRI (‘Love IT’ – Real Italian Food) as part of the Expo Milano 2015. The dome will be located in the southeast part of the Lake Arena – a large circular pool of water at the end of the Cardo, one of the main axes of the Expo Milano 2015 masterplan – and surrounded by the European Union Pavilion and the Vanke Pavilion.

COPAGRI is a confederation of agricultural producers that brings together hundreds of Italian farmers. During the Expo, they will showcase their approach to the use of natural food products, all linked to the Italian tradition. The space inside is conceived to host a typical Italian ‘local market’, where each producer exhibits the product, tells their story, and introduces their company.

Besides hosting an events area and a hall for cooking demonstrations, part of the surface area is for the direct sale of products and the icons of Italian street food, pizza and ice cream, made with 100% organic products.

The design started from the observation of Italian landscapes, both natural and man-shaped. During this initial design phase, the architects had the following thoughts: The splendor of the Italian cities is beautifully represented by their domes. The “landscape” of Rome, Florence, Turin, Venice and Milan is identified with the skyline of their domes, which in different ages always represented the exceptional architectural spaces in Italy.

The Pantheon of ancient Rome, Brunelleschi in Florence, Bramante, Bernini, Borromini, Mengoni, Nervi: the Italian domes could tell the story of Italian civilization, and its artistic wonders. In this project the domes are not only representing the magnificence of the Italian past, but they also show us potential for the future lying in the construction of domes.

Continuing the path illustrated by the engineer and inventor Buckminster Fuller, the architects propose and experiment domes as sustainable structures that, besides being beautiful, use a minimum of materials so that they can be optimized and designed for production in series with a consequent great ease of construction.

The dome, made of wood, represents a message of sustainability and will host several exhibitions, accompanying the visitors in the topics proposed by Expo Milano 2015. At the end of the Expo, when all the buildings will be removed, these domes can be easily dismantled, transported and reassembled in symbolic Italian places to host a variety of functions. Therefore, they will make this part of the Expo even more sustainable, witnessing for a long time to come the universal message of Expo Milano 2015 “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.

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