Cultural Center: The Latest Architecture and News

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Foster + Partners have unveiled the design for the United Arab Emirates pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo. Designed to evoke the experience of walking through UAE’s ancient communities, the elongated site will be transformed into a contemporary reinterpretation of a desert city. Passive principles, such as rainwater harvesting and the integration of photovoltaic cells, are targeted to achieve LEED Platinum certification. These strategies are all designed to support the pavilion’s many dining areas, which embrace the Expo’s overarching theme “Feeding the Planet” by serving a taste of modern Emirarti cuisine.

“We are very proud to be chosen again to create the national pavilion for the UAE,” stated Norman Foster. “Our challenge has been to design for two climates – to create a naturally cool, comfortable space for visitors in Milan, while considering the pavilion’s ultimate reconstruction in the Emirates, where there is a need to provide shade from the intense sun.”

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The Baltic Sea Art Park, designed by Warsaw based design studio WXCA, proposes a series of common exhibition spaces in downtown Pärnu, Estonia, on the edge of the Pärnu River. Folk art and professional work from artists of the Baltic Sea nations will be exhibited in a collection of floating pavilions. With nine countries being invited to exhibit, including Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Finland (with autonomous Aland), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden, the "floating piazza" is intended to act as "a platform for exchange of the Baltic Sea culture that enables integration and interaction between all Baltic countries and their artistic heritage."

Orproject, a London-based architecture practice, completed a room-sized, nature-inspired canopy titled, 'Vana,' for the India Design Forum exhibited in The Brick House in New Delhi.

Read what the architects' had to say after the break...

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Akaran Architects, in collaboration with IRANBON, have been selected as one of four finalist for their proposal 'My Iran,' a pavilion representing the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Milan Expo 2015. The team will now join the other finalists to refine their ideas into a single proposal. The rectangular site (20 by 100 meters) is a 'resonant landscape,' aiming to showcase the central theme: feeding the planet, energy for life.

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