Expo 2015 – French Pavilion

The French Pavilion at Expo 2015

The project was designed by the studio XTU Architects (Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazière). The pavilion has a total area of 3592 square meters and a covered area of 2000 square meters.

The Pavilion is intended as a real covered market as per tradition and symbol of French food culture. Adjacent to the pavilion, the garden of agricultural diversity French, cereals and vegetables of various types.
The pavilion is made of laminated wood and can be completely dismantled so that it can be reused in other places. The construction was carried out by CMC together with CMB of Carpi and the French SIMONIN.

The building is on three levels, unfortunately we could only visit the ground floor which is still the center of the exhibition. On the upper levels the spaces are dedicated to offices and catering.

We read from the website of the CMC :
"The pavilion features a primary and secondary curved structure made of laminated fir. Vertical larch elements on the façade protect the building from solar radiation. The interconnections between the various wooden structures are invisible while all the ribs were made using numerically controlled machines.
The pavilion was born from a three-dimensional image of a chorography with reliefs and depressions, sectioned and inverted to show its interior full of concavities and convexities.
The framework consists of two orders of mutually orthogonal arches (with variable sweep and development), with alignments arranged at 45° to the perimeter of the building, spaced 1,5 m apart, useful for supporting the 1st and 2nd floor platforms. This structure is completed by a series of beams and pillars, also in laminated wood, which is woven on a mesh generally equal to 4,5 m covered by 160 mm thick panels.
The foundations consist of a reinforced concrete slab 50 and 55 cm thick in the areas affected by the discharges of the elevated works, and 30 cm in correspondence with the central exhibition surface."

Credits:

Client: FranceAgriMer
Architects: XTU – Anouk Legendre, Nicolas Desmazières
Project manager: Mathias Lukacs
Team: Nicolas Senemaud, Stefania Maccagnan, Gaëlle Le Borgne
Partner architects: Atelien Architecture
Exhibition Designer: Studio Adeline Rispal
Multimedia: Innovision
Lighting designers: Licht Kunst Licht

Lighting products: iGuzzini
Engineering: Grontmij
Environmental Technology and Engineering: Oasiis
Landscape architects: Agence Laverne Paysagistes
Sound designer: Viasonora
Kitchen Designer: BECP
Graphic Designer: Chevalvert
Cultural Engineering: Lordculture