EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE'S WORLD EXPO AWARDS HONORABLE MENTION FOR INTERPRETATION OF THEME: UZBEKISTAN

DESIGN: Atelier Brückner

FABRICATION: NUSSLI Group

ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS: Medienprojekt p2, KLEE Technisches Planungsbüro, Tamschick Media+Space

Rooted in its cultural heritage and reinterpreted in timber, brick and clay, the Uzbekistan Pavilion expressed the Expo theme — “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” — through a deep-focused lens of sustainability. The pavilion's exterior walls combined clay from Awajishima island and reclaimed bricks from demolished buildings in Japan. Inside, the level of light was set to “dusk” where guests encountered thematic exhibitions using elegant-as-lace models that glowed like bioluminescent life forms. The exhibits focused on the country's rapid transition to a green economy, including projects to restore the devasted Aral Sea region. With the deftness of a ninja, the floor underneath attendees stealthily rose, until finally opening up into the rooftop forest of “trees” made of Osugi cedar, a softwood harvested from nine forests around Osaka. Not just preaching change but practicing it, the pavilion will be dissembled and reconstructed in Uzbekistan.

By Exhibitor magazine: Linda Armstrong, Sean Carlson, Danelle Dodds, Emily Olson, Nancy Olson, and Charles Pappas