The Monaco Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015.

Description by the team of Monaco's Pavillion

Solidarity and sharing – a new look at how we feed the planet.
Future development depends on having an awareness that the prosperity achieved over the centuries can contribute to promote in solidarity, protecting the environment and achieving sustainable growth.
Cooperation, Governance and Education are the three guiding principles behind the message the Monaco Pavilion wishes to spread. Cooperation means the better sharing out of international wealth, Governance as the oppor- tunity of giving incentives for responsible poli- cies in support of research and innovation, and Education as a true and essential resource for the future and able to create public awareness of the themes that Expo stands for.

Of the 144 participating countries the Principality of Monaco is here at Expo Milano 2015 in accordance with a wish expressed by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2011 to address the subject of international solidarity and a new idea of sharing. On the back of the tradition which has seen Monaco bring together Italian and French cultures, the contribution of the Principality of Monaco is based on a culture of sharing and the exchange of ideas elements that typify both countries.

The container, the tent and Mother Earth as universal and recognisable symbols.
The Principality of Monaco will be at Expo with its 1,000 square meters close to the Japanese, Russian and Turkish pavilions. The Monaco Pavilion was designed by the Italian architect Enrico Pollini and is made up of a series of containers above which lies a wooden laminated roof that imitates the shape of a huge tent. The whole structure is covered by a hanging garden of an area of 500 square metres based on permeable sphagnum moss and there are broad green vertical surfaces fed by a rain water collection system. The aim of the project is to emphasise innova- tion for the fostering of a new and greater environmental sensitivity.

The container is the world’s most commonly used means for freight transportation and is as such emblematic of trade and exchange; the tent “shelters” all those countries to which the Principality sends help, while the idea of Mother Earth is revived through the use of the greenery and the many species of plants that sketch out the lines of the five continents to represent the universality that characterises Expo 2015. The General constructor for the Monaco Pavilion is ES-KO, a Monte Carlo company that specialises in the building of modular structures. It has set up a new company called Eco System for the realisation of the project.

The “Ideas Hangar” An interactive journey through the themes of Expo.
The interior of the Monaco Pavilion is made of piles of wooden transport crates stacked upon each other to symbolise all the initiatives and actions that will, thanks to Expo 2015, be ready for export all over the world. This interior is made by the German studio Facts and Fiction and is conceived of as an “ideas hangar” with eleven interaction stations that illustrate the themes presented by the Principality of Monaco. The visitors can come in through a number of different entrances which themselves reflect the multiplicity of points of view there are with regard to the environment, recycling, sustainable fishing, deforestation, the problems afflicting the oceans and the programmes of cooperation that have already been embarked upon in Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Mongolia.

The recycling theme will also see the start- up of new initiatives at the end of Expo Milano 2015. The whole structure will itself be dismantled and reused in Burkina Faso as an operational headquarters for the Red Cross. The process thus entirely accords with the circular economy championed by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and is an exemplary case for the whole of world of Expo.