Expo 2015 – Azerbaijan Pavilion

Expo 2015 - Azerbaijan Pavilion

Creative conception and project supervision: Symmetric
Creative Director: Daniele Zambelli
Architectural project: Arassociati
Landscape Architects: AG&P MEP and Structural Engineering: iDeas

Biodiversity is a treasure

Variety is the main feature of the spaces and forms of the pavilion. A choice that is especially evocative in representing the great bioclimatic and cultural variety of Azerbaijan through an architectural path that winds through various levels united and interpenetrated by three biospheres where the visitor finds the specificities of the country within the general theme identified by Expo 2015 “Feeding the planet”.

The first is the geographical biosphere of landscapes and the crossroads of continental routes, the second is that of the nine climatic biodiversities of Azerbaijan, the third is that of traditional cultures and innovation promoted for the new generations.

The building is developed, in addition to the ground floor designed as an entrance and open reception area for the organization of special events, on three levels connected by escalators in which, in continuity with the exhibition of biospheres, there is space for the illustration of the natural, agricultural and productive resources of the country. On the top level there is a restaurant with a terrace.

The pavilion is composed of modern and simple architectural forms created by drawing on traditional Azerbaijani materials such as wood and stone worked in an innovative way and combined with universal materials such as glass and metal. In addition to spatial variety, light and transparency are the main elements with which the architecture of the pavilion plays, ensuring the exceptionality due to representing the event and at the same time generating forms that also help the energy balance of the building. In this sense, the skin of the pavilion, made with flexible wooden slats, wraps its sides differently, leaving only the north front freer, thus determining a passive control of the microclimate that maximizes energy exchanges between the building and the outside.

The pavilion seeks in its distribution and its forms the maximum flexibility of spaces by virtue of the various possibilities of installation and in particular the ability to be re-adapted over time also functionally. In fact, once Expo 2015 is over, the pavilion is expected to be transferred to Baku, facilitated by dismantling and construction techniques that are almost entirely dry (Arassocciati.it)