The Temporary Pavillion
 

The Temporary Pavillion

February 2016
 

squares

neo~local design

 

The exhibit was designed to communicate the island’s qualities through an evocative and emotional experience.

 
 

Sardinia’s Expo 2015 temporary Pavilion was hosted in a pre-set exhibition area that different Italian regions have occupied in turn during the six-months event. The project’s key challenge was to offer a concise experience and vision within constrains such as a set-up time of only a few hours and the need for practical and very light structures.

In order to invite visitors, an external portal was projected outside the main entrance. This took the shape of a cantilever-bris soleil gallery coated with patterns of the dingbats-like ‘pibiones’ figures, part of the corporate image we developed for Sardinia at Expo. The entrance hall was arranged so to evoke the idea of crossing the sea to reach land. The room’s walls, and a suspended ‘mobile’ structure, were decorated with photographic and coloured fragments evoking the sea of Sardinia.

The Pavillion’s main hall was conceived as an ideal wonder room: the shelving system, were filled with visual fragments representing the four keywords chosen to present Sardinia to the Expo public: the quality of food and of the environment, active longevity and sustainable innovation. The shelves lined loops of the thematic films we developed for the event with the golden bells of Sardinia’s traditional sheep-farming.

The following passage space was arranged as an ‘experience gallery’, that once again produced an overall effect juxtaposing different fragments: the fragrance of helichrysum (a common mediterranean aromatic plant) was paired by the tactile and visual panels created by Daniela Ducato re-using by-products of various food production processes such as beer, cheese, canned tomatoes, wool.

At the end of this gallery, a small room completely covered in black felt hosted a virtual-reality interactive installation by CRS4, reconstructing the archeological site of the Giants of Monte ’e Prama (near Oristano).

Finally, the exhibit’s ending room presented an immersive 3D stereo experience of a a short documentary, by Roberto Rinaldi, on the underwater wonders of Sardinia’s marine parks.

 

Marco Sironi

Designer and scholar at DADU

 

(Graphic) designer and scholar, focused on the idea of place, his background combines design skills and practice in literature. In Milan he has taught visual identity and basic design for graphics; collaborates with our Department (teaching Graphic and Product Design) since the beginning of the Design in Alghero venture.

 
Sironi