Switzerland, the first country confirming their participation for Expo 2015, represents itself at Milan with a 4443 square meter pavilion, designed by Netwerch GmbH, winner out of over a hundred competition entries.
The Swiss objective at Expo 2015 is to highlight aspects about food consumption behaviour, healthy nutrition and fair trade developments around the world.
Design of the Swiss Pavilion takes you on a journey through the “Confooderatio Helvetica”. The pavilion complex consists of four towers that represent four distinct elements: water, coffee, apples and salt, that stand for sustainability, responsibility, innovation and loyalty to heritage and traditions.
The tower dedicated to water focusses on the importance of natural resources. The idea is that the water supply comes from the underground of the Swiss Gottard, however, to stick to the 2015 Expo theme “Feeding the planet. Energy for Life” the water is taken from Milan directly.
The coffee tower stands for innovation and sustainability of the agricultural sector in Switzerland similar to that of another two Swiss export products: chocolate and cheese.
The tower of apples represents biodiversity and its fundamental role in agriculture and land protection. Lastly, the salt tower is a symbol of stability and traditions, which is essential for nutrition and industrial production of Switzerland.
The peculiarity of the Swiss pavilion is that the visitors of the Expo in Milan are actively participating in emptying the products stored in the towers during the six months. The towers will not be refilled and therefore the modular structure of the pavilion allows the ground to sag when products are taken out, this shows the visitors the impact of food consumption.
After the 2015 Universal Expo in Milan, the towers will be reused as greenhouses in Switzerland.