UK Pavilion Milan Expo 2015 Design Competition

British Artist Wolfgang Buttress to Design UK Pavilion at Milan Expo

The UK Pavilion Milan Expo 2015 Design Competition was commissioned by the British Government, to find the best design team to showcase Britain’s distinctive qualities of creativity and enterprise to the millions of international visitors who will visit the UK Pavilion at Milan.

Prince Harry announced at a ceremony in Rome on Sunday 18 May 2014 that the winner was Wolfgang Buttress in association with Simmonds Studio, BDP, Slow Food UK, Martin Dewey, Dr Martin Bencsik, John Dorat, Arnia, The Social London, Nick Dewey, Robin Turner, Carl Gosling, Clear Construction Consultants Ltd, Joff + Ollie, Professor Rudi Klein and Paul Smith.

Buttress’ intriguing design features a virtual beehive made of fine steel lattice, with LEDs which glow and pulsate according to signals from a real hive.

Eight teams were shortlisted in this fast-track two-stage design competition, which ran between January and May 2014.

The challenge for the teams was to develop a design concept that represented a British take on the Expo theme – Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

The shortlist produced an extremely creative and varied set of responses, including an edible strawberry cloud, a seawater greenhouse and augmented reality software (iPads that digitally transform the physical environment).

An eminent jury, including among others Lord Puttnam, Andrew Summers CMG (chair), Moira Gemmill and Tom Aikens, supported by a technical panel, scrutinised the design concepts and selected the winner.