Dismantling EXPO Milan – The dark side of temporary architecture

What happens after an event of worldwide importance comes to an end?

When in 2015, the 1.5 million-square-meter World’s fair in Milan was open, we were peppered with vivid images of vivacious crowds ping-ponging between national pavilions like bees in a flower garden. Exhibitions, live performances, special events, presidential visits, debates, cocktail parties, everything conjured to make the Expo a flamboyant event than nearly 20 million visitors (including me) should have not missed even if a gigantic asteroid would hit Earth the very next day.

What a contrast between those lively images of lustrous architectures and what is now reported in a Facebook group, entitled “Dismantling Expo”, dedicated to the final fate of Expo 2015. Casual visitors, workers and staff are indeed vividly depicting the complex procedures of dismantling the national pavilions, which only some weeks ago were boldly standing in all their splendor.

Cover image, pavilion of China in December 2015 (right: photo by Marco Brian De Tommaso) and in May (left, photo Inexhibit)

Pavilion of Uruguay in May 2015 (photo Inexhibit) and in December (photo by Corrado Bina)

German pavilion in May 2015 (photo by Inexhibit) and in December (photo by Luca M. Colaianni)

Pavilion of Spain in May 2015 (photo by Inexhibit) and in December (photo by Corrado Bina)

Needless to say, the photos posted there testify a necessary step for all temporary events, large or small; the dismantling procedure is as important as the building stage, it is even more difficult and demanding somehow, and all the participating countries were required to plan it carefully in order to reduce as much as possible the environmental impact of debris, waste and pollutants.

Only a couple pavilion will be retained as permanent venues, as we already explained in this article, thus a thorough dismantling strategy was absolutely required and its development admirable.

Nevertheless, I can’t avoid to notice the disquieting celebration of entropy these images represent, and a niggling doubt about the actual sense of such kind of events necessarily arises in my mind…

The group “Dismantling Expo” is available at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1646826985551359/

Swiss pavilion in May 2015 (photo by Inexhibit) and in December (photo by Corrado Bina)

United Arab Emirates pavilion in May 2015 (photo by Inexhibit) and in December (photo by Elena Galimberti)

Pavilion of Ecuador in December 2015 (photo by Elena Galimberti)

Dutch pavilion, photo by Luca M. Colaianni

Pavilion of China, photo by Inexhibit

Pavilion of China, photo by Marco Brian De Tommaso