Bee-themed UK pavilion welcomes visitors at Milan Expo 2015
Now open to the public in Milan, ‘Grown in Britain and Northern Ireland’, is the UK’s response to the Milan Expo’s theme ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ .
It was designed by Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Buttress in collaboration with BDP landscape architect James Millington, BDP architects and structural engineer Tristan Simmonds.
According to BDP, the pavilion ‘explores both the parallels and intrinsic relationship between bees and humans including the current decline in the honeybee population and its significance in food production’.
Its intention was ‘to create an experience which is visceral and immersive’. Visitors are taken on a journey through British landscape typologies – an orchard, an undulating wildflower meadow, a piazza and a roof terrace – before arriving at the focal point of the pavilion, a huge sculptural beehive.
At this point, visitors are enveloped by pulsating lights and sounds generated from signals transmitting the movement and bee language within real beehives.
