Expo Milano 2015 – Holy See Pavilion

“Give us today our bread” and “Not by bread alone” are the two sacred writings that the Holy See has chosen to enlighten its participation at the EXPO MILANO 2015 (which theme was “Feed the planet/Energy for life”).
Conceived as a cave where to go praying, the white compact volume of the pavilion represents the essentiality of a boulder, whose surfaces act as the supports of the message that connects the Catholic Church to the central theme of EXPO. Suspended on the external walls and covering the whole surface of the pavilion, the scriptures translated into 13 languages become poetry and recall the biblical episode of God dropping manna from the sky to save his people wandering in the desert.
The white metal writings on the white walls could only be read through their shadows.
Inside the pavilion, two half vaults (romanic and gothic) assume the value of architectural fragments that remind the specific spaces of Christianity: sensors of natural light at the top, they converge at the bottom onto the central axis of a long wooden table, fulcrum of the exhibition, hub and symbol of hospitality, synthesis between individual and community experience.

Architects: AAAA quattroassociati

Awards
BIE Bureau International des Expositions, First Prize – Paris, 2015
AWDA – AIAP Women in Design, Menzione d’Onore – Italy, 2015
AIAP Progetto Committenza Attestato di Qualità – Italy, 2015
Unione degli Artigiani Italiani, First Prize – Italy, 2015