Expo 2015 – Austrian Pavilion

The Austrian Pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan

BREATHE.AUSTRIA

With the pavilion 'breathe' Austria presents its contribution to the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".
'breathe' It puts food at the forefront, as well as one of our most important resources at the centre of international attention: air.
Austria's air quality is very high by world standards and is one of the country's most important characteristics. However, air, climate, and atmosphere also connect the entire planet. They are considered nutrients, carriers of information, producers of energy, and resources.

Architecture. The Structure of the Building as Landscape
The Austrian Pavilion at the Milan Expo is a showcase project that unites the building and the environment. Through the planting of 560 square meters of forest, "breathe" creates a complex network of people, environment and climate.

The outside space inside
The pavilion frames a generous plant body and serves as a vessel for the performance of the interior landscape. With technical assistance, the framed form creates the microclimate of an Austrian forest. Wherever light enters the built structure, ecological growth and metabolism occur. The forest area's vegetation has a leaf surface area of approximately 43.200 m2, generating 62,5 kg of oxygen per hour, enough to meet the needs of 1.800 people and thus contributing to global oxygen production. This process is technically supported by evaporative cooling, but is completely free of air conditioning.

See a short video about a trail inside the forest …>>

In this way, it is possible to recreate a dense Austrian forest with comparatively natural measures, that is, based on the cooling effect of evapotranspiration from plants and forest soil. The resulting climate effect differs significantly from the air and climate experienced in Milan, and is noticeable.

The planting of 100% forest vegetation is an exemplary contribution to urban planning, as the integral use of the landscape can provide urban life with sufficient oxygen and fresh air. This example highlights Austria's sustainable reforestation policy, but also its opposite in the global decline in the number of life-giving trees.

An Open Source “Air Generation Station”
The pavilion represents visualization technology and natural environments as a whole, which could inspire numerous other projects. The Austrian Pavilion creates a place that connects what seem incompatible: technology and natural diversity. Austria demonstrates that hybrid systems of nature and technology can be ecologically successful.

Client: Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economics, Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce
Project management: Rudolf Ruzicka

Project
Terrain: landscape urbanism Bda – Klaus K. Loenhart, with Agency in biosphere, Hohensinn Architektur, TU Graz – Institute for Architecture and Landscape, Lendlabor
Exhibition concept: Maren Richter
Climate: Transsolar Energietechnik
Vegetation: Bernhard Scharf
Structures: Engelsmann Peters Beratende Ingenieure