China Vanke is set to be the first Chinese company to have its own pavilion at a world’s fair, and the design for the Expo Milan 2015 event seems sure to help the developer get noticed.
A ground breaking ceremony was held earlier this month for the Daniel Libeskin-designed pavilion, which was attended by Vanke executives, Expo officials and the mayor of Milan, where the Expo will be held.
The design is said to be inspired by the ancient Chinese teachings of Confucious and Lao-Tzu, as well as by Renaissance artwork. Some less romantic observers have described the twisted shapes of the structure as resembling reptile-skinned soft-serve ice cream.
In his own comments on the project Vanke chairman Wang Shi echoed the culinary overtones of the design.
“In keeping with the theme of Expo Milano, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, we proposed the concept ‘Shitang’ for the Vanke Pavilion,” Shi said in a media interview.
“Shitang in Chinese means ‘table’. We thus want to express our idea of urbanisation and community through the experience of food. Indeed, food is one of the most effective ways to understand a culture: the ritual of eating and talking together is important in every community because by eating together it is possible to get to know each other better,” the property tycoon added.
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- Soft serve snakeskin gelato anyone?
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- A rendering of visitors scaling the reptile-skinned pavilion
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- More than 300 video monitors will create a “virtual forest” inside the pavilion
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- A reflecting pool outside the pavilion
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- Sinuous curves covered by a scaly skin
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- Officials at the ground breaking
The interior of the pavilion will house a “virtual forest” created through an irregular arrangement of 300 multimedia screens showing a short film on Chinese culture.
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