CONCEPT
In response to the Expo theme, the UK Pavilion highlights the plight of the honeybee and the importance of pollination for food production.
Visitors meander through an orchard, discover a wildflower meadow and enter ‘the Hive’, a sculpture inspired by an abstracted analogue of honeycomb.
The open lattice structure reveals a spherical void hollowed from its interior which pulses and glows according to signals streamed-live from a real bee-hive. The pavilion reinterprets apiarian ecology as an immersive multisensory experience, leaving visitors with a lasting flavour of the British landscape.
DETAIL
33,098 node (caps)
5,711 chord plates
31,176 spacer plates
28,782 rods
891 LEDs
38 panels for the glass floor
72 balustrade panels
80 fittings
18 columns
4 ring beam segments
33,098 node bolts
16,549 hex stud
16,549 screw for locating upper node cap
2,856 estimated splice bolts
378 lengths of LED ductwork
TEAM
Artist + Creative Lead
Wolfgang Buttress
Architecture, landscape architecture and environmental engineering: BDP
Structural Engineers: Simmonds Studio
AV & Graphic Content:
Squint Opera
Pavilion Manufacture And Production:
Stage One
Physicist and Bee Expert:
Dr. Martin Bencsik: Nottingham Trent University
Sound & Acoustic Consultants:
Hoare Lea