Livegreenblog in the French pavilion at Expo Milano 2015

On our visit to Expo 2015 we were really taken by the French pavilion, both due to its architectural structure and its content, which builds on an urgent issue for our future: How can we produce more and better and eat well?



The French pavilion explores the general theme of Expo Milano 2015 - Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life - starting from four fundamental aspects, namely on the basis of four pillars: promoting a sustainable food model, producing more and better, transferring innovation, pleasure and health.





The undulating pavilion was designed by architecture agency XTU, known for its sustainable design approach, and you get to it through a vegetable garden growing plants typically associated with French cuisine. The wooden construction references a large indoor marketplace, “Les Halles”, and welcomes visitors with a range of theme areas devoted to the country's crops and food production, also enhanced by lots of decorative objects linked to the culinary tradition. The pavilion designs the geography of a place dedicated both to food and to social aspects, insomuch as marketplaces are traditionally where people meet, gather and share.





Everything is completed by two large screens - one shows sustainable agriculture and the other presents the problem of malnutrition in first-world countries, where obesity is constantly on the rise. According to France, diversifying our diet, serving traditional dishes as opposed to globalised food, dining on nutritionally good quality food, eating slowly and consciously and dining with others make all the difference. Aware choices combined with the most modern agro-food technology, which could guarantee food for the planet in the future. 





When you leave the pavilion, you are greeted by the words of French writer Guy de Maupassant: "It is only imbeciles who are not gourmands". Here, they take on a whole new meaning - being a gourmand is good for our planet!

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Agence d'architetecture XTU
Location: EXPO 2015 Milan, Italy
Year: 2015
Images: © Gianluca Giordano