WOODN INDUSTRIES AT EXPO 2015

Final thoughts on Expo 2015

WOODN INDUSTRIES AT EXPO

The exhibition area (1.1 million square meters), where more than 140 countries presented their pavilions, has been visited by nearly 22 million people (including 2 million children), a third of them foreigners. Expo hosted 60 political leaders and thousands of events, debates, concerts, shows. 800,000 photos of the Tree of Life have been shared on Facebook. Visitors spent 2.3 billion euro, and 88% of respondents claimed to be satisfied with their visit, despite the endless lines over the last month making it quite difficult to access the pavilions. It is estimated that - on average – each visitor spent 2 hours and 45 minutes in line. The Mexican pavilion, entirely paved with Greenwood Deck, was visited by about 1.2 million people! Keep reading to get some glimpses of the penultimate day of Expo: we retraced our journey through some of Woodn & Greenwood’s applications after millions and millions of step.

Agostino Ghirardelli for Libeskind Milan, Antonio Citterio, Marco Padoan: these are some of the big names who have chosen Woodn and Greenwood for their projects.

Let us quickly recall how Woodn Industries was involved with Expo:

MEXICO PAVILION, the big “ear of corn": 2,000 square meters (on a total of 3,000) are paved with Greenwood Deck;

VANKE PAVILION, the red dragon: the lounge bar terrace overlooking Palazzo Italia is decorated with Woodn Versatilis dressing up the elevator walls;

CASCINA TRIULZA, the restaurant of the Civil Society Pavilion: the large terrace overlooking the decumanus is paved with Greenwood Deck for about 200 square meters;

OVS SPACE, a sustainable shopping space: a relax area paved with Greenwood Deck;

THE BOARDWALKS,the secluded promenade: more than two kilometers of boardwalks made in Greenwood, going through rows of trees, colored wooden fences and the perimeter water canals.

At the end of Expo 2015 we wondered: how many feet have walked on these floors in the last 6 months? How many steps? There’s no way to figure that out...

The Mexico pavilion by itself has been visited by over one million people, the Vanke dragon got 440,000 visitors, the Triulza restaurant was full every night. And how many steps along the peripheral waterway, with nearly 22 million walkers...

We went to take a look on the evening before the last day of Expo, with a beautiful sunset, trying to avoid the queue…

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT, IN TERMS OF RECYCLING?

We recently heard the Italian government wants to evaluate all options to redevelop the enormous Expo area for productive, cultural and scientific uses. But what will become of our pavilions? What will be left, and what instead destroyed? What will be reused or recycled? Right now it is difficult to know for sure. We know that the Mexico pavilion will be fully dismantled and transferred overseas, with the exception of materials that were rented and the concrete infrastructure, which will probably be the only thing to be destroyed and not reused. It seems the Mexican government intends to reuse part of the pavilion in future opportunities.

Instead, regarding Vanke Pavilion, it has been decided that it will be reused in Italy, rebuilt as it stands in another site. The structure is largely made of concrete though, so that will inevitably be destroyed. But the iron pipes, the tv screens, the wiring, the furniture, the red tiles and the Woodn slats will be reused, even if the percentage ratio – compared to the concrete walls – looks low: we calculated the percentage of recycling/reuse on the whole pavilion is not more than 20-25%.

As for the boardwalks along the waterways, their fate will be linked to that of the entire Expo area. What is certain is that Greenwood Deck, being fully recyclable, will surely not end up in a landfill…

Cascina Triulza will remain where it is: the project was donated by Architect Citterio to the City of Milan, and therefore also the restaurant with the Greenwood terrace will not be moved.

We don’t know what will happen to the OVS Space; we only know for sure that the use - and perhaps then the recovery - of Greenwood allowed to escape the slaughter of a large number of trees. And if it will indeed be recycled, the decking of the pavilion will not produce pollution but new material for decking.