Sowing the Seeds

The UAE pavilion designed by Sir Norman Foster to resemble sand dunes at the Milan Expo 2015 SOWING THE SEEDS Could the $880 million Expo 2015 be a mere exercise in vanity or is there any substance to its message? GC visits Milan as a precursor to Expo 2020 in Dubai BY IVAN CARVALHO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA PEPPER-PETERSON very five years countries come together for an extravagant show unlike any other: the world’s fair. Since 1851, when London’s Hyde Park hosted the first edition and erected the impressive Crystal Palace to greet visitors, the universal exposition has served as a showcase for nations to display their industrial prowess and present their vision of the future. Once great gatherings where major technological advances were unveiled to an eager public, in today’s instant access world of the internet the fair has evolved into an elaborate exercise of nation branding, where countries fly the flag and promote tourism more than trade. For the host city, the event is an opportunity to reboot its image. Energy for Life highlights the latest developments in agriculture and sustainable food production to prepare the world for the challenge of providing for a global population expected to top nine billion in 2050. Organisers are optimistic that the six-month event, which runs until October, will give a much-needed shot in the arm to a local economy looking to shake off years of recession. A business destination for those in finance, fashion and furniture, hopes are high in Milan for a big influx of tourists, who normally stop in the Lombard capital for a brief stint of shopping before spending the bulk of their money at more popular sightseeing destinations in Italy. However, the success or failure of Expo 2015 will not depend solely on attendance figures. So far, Milan has seen less than three million people per month pass through the fair’s gates This year all eyes are on Italy’s second city as Milan puts on Expo 2015, whose food-centric theme Feeding the Planet, 32 JULY / AUGUST 2015 Milan Expo 2015 is an opportunity for each country to boost their brand’s image and present their vision for the future 2015 JULY / AUGUST 33 EXPO SPECIAL REPORT and despite 15 million tickets sold, officials are whispering that as many as 24 million visitors, or an average of four million a month, will be needed to cover the $881 million operating costs. World fairs get graded on the legacy they leave behind and several recent editions haven’t fared well – just ask the residents of Hannover (Expo 2000) and Seville (Expo 1992), stuck with empty pavilions in disrepair and a heﬅy bill. One thing in Milan’s favour is that the vast majority of pavilions will be dismantled and shipped back to their respective countries, with more than half the exhibition space to be leﬅ green. Initially, Expo 2015 officials wanted to avoid many of the problems that plagued cities like Hannover by not triggering a massive build-up on the one million metre squared plot set aside for the fair on Milan’s outskirts. In 2007, a masterplan by a team that included Pritzker-prizewinning architect Jacques Herzog envisioned a giant botanical garden where nations would Along the nearly 2km-long avenue of nations at the expo, visitors are greeted by pavilion staff, oﬅen in ethnic costume and line up to await tours that display a country’s food culture — some conceptual, like Japan’s digital rice fields, others practical, like Morocco’s exhibit of pristine rows of clementines. While there are architectural standouts among the pavilions – Chile’s simple pinewood structure and Sir Norman Foster’s design of sinuous concrete walls resembling sand dunes for the UAE– many come off as overwrought containers playing up national stereotypes that turns the event, in Herzog’s words, into a “vanity fair”. “It’s a Disneyland of food, with food courts to attract people. There’s little discussion about the theme of sustainability,” Boeri adds. The presence of sponsors like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s has also raised concerns. Still, the expo’s manager Piero Galli defends the setup. “We have invited Italy’s Slow Food <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">Milanese architect Stefano Boeri </li><li style="flex:1">Restaurateur Giovanni Fiorin, owner of Pisacco and Dry in the city’s Brera district </li></ul>have plots to farm and pavilions would be minimal, replaced by barn-like structures and tables where visitors could eat and learn about countries’ farming practices firsthand. movement, which arose as a reaction to fast food restaurants, and McDonald’s so that people can see, taste and compare. There needs to be an open dialogue.” “Our idea was simple. We wanted to create an agricultural park and show people how the land is worked, to reconnect people to the soil,” says Milanese architect Stefano Boeri. He worked with Herzog on the project before officials ditched it in favour of a traditional layout with sprawling national pavilions that today feature exhibits with touchscreens and other digital trickery. According to Boeri, pavilions — which have cost the 145 participating nations more than $1.1 billion to assemble — are a tool of public diplomacy. “It is a sort of Olympics, with countries flexing their muscles through architecture.” Galli notes the success of Pavilion Zero, an exhibit that recounts man’s relationship to agriculture through the centuries and highlights problems such as overfishing and the amount of purchased food that is thrown away today by wasteful shoppers. “A world’s fair is not a trade show. It addresses issues affecting all of humanity. Our goal is to make people aware of what they are putting in their mouths.” For better or worse, events like the expo leave their architectural footprint on a city – take the Grand Palais in Paris – and in the run-up to this event, the Milanese were subjected 34 JULY / AUGUST 2015 EXPO SPECIAL REPORT Boeri’s Bosco Verticale (vertical forest), a pair of plant-covered apartment towers in the Porta Nuova business district features as many trees as can be planted in a hectare of forest. to construction sites as roads and metro lines were added or extended and the canal area was, aﬅer decades, cleaned up. For restaurateur Giovanni Fiorin, who oversees popular eateries Pisacco and Dry in the city’s Brera district, the headaches and costs of getting ready for the expo have not been offset by a boom in diners so far. “I have seen many restaurants opening around us in the past year but I do not see the crowds promised by organisers.” Perhaps the legacy of Expo 2015 is best seen in the city’s new Porta Nuova business district. Amid shiny skyscrapers and Boeri’s Bosco Verticale, a pair of plant-covered apartment towers, there sits Ratana. Housed in a former railway depot, the restaurant is run by chef Cesare Battisti. An Expo culinary ambassador, he shows off the pride of his kitchen — a new vegetable garden. Between rows of aromatic herbs, fruits and vegetables, which include 10 varieties of tomato, Battisti argues the fair is not about having some fancy new urban landmark akin to what Paris received in 1889 with the Eiffel Tower. “The legacy of hosting Expo is to put Italy back at the centre of the debate on food and what it means to cook using quality ingredients farmed in a sustainable manner,” he says as he sniffs a sprig of freshly picked basil. “That is far more important than any single building.” Under the theme of ‘harmonious diversity’, the Japanese pavillion showcases an interactive installation of an immersive projection space that requires visitors to wade through a technological expanse 2015 JULY / AUGUST 35

Sowing the Seeds

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