Looking at a sheep and its wool, a shepherd learned to shear it and process it, all the way to the production of yarn. One thread, woven with others, became sturdy fabric, to cover our bodies and protect us from the cold, but it also became rope, and then the binder that held together scaffolding and works of architecture. Perhaps not all people are aware of the fact that the word trellis, used to indicate support structures, has its root in a fabric formed by three types of yarn – it was very strong, precisely because it was used to carry burdens.

Man’s ingenuity then created cloth, and incredible waves that are like poems, metaphors, stories. Weaving is one of the most ancient arts, which has suggested ways of life, organizing warps and woofs in which to also inscribe the concepts of community and city, for which the Roman street plan of settlements, with its two main axes, is but one example. In our heritage, weaving implies marvelous tapestries, which inside the pavilion will become filtering elements between zones, decoration and narration during the visit itinerary.

Another extraordinary story is that of hewn stone, which brings us to another type of weave – that of masonry. When a peasant took stones from the ground he wanted to plow, he piled them in a way that was functional for the needs of the moment. He learned that every territory has its own particular types of stone, and that he could use them to make embankments, terraces, property boundaries, but also to construct a stable, a nuraghe, the walls of gardens, or dwellings. Dry stone walls have been listed as heritage by UNESCO. We will use them as a memory and reference to our Mediterranean culture, to border the belvedere terrace of the pavilion. Weaving and stone are the two primordial dimensions of research on materials, which in our reinterpretation will have other marvelous traveling companions in Dubai.

Starting with white statuary Carrara marble, inside which Michelangelo glimpsed a form that became a masterpiece of sculpture of all time, and then shifting to wood, in a ‘theater of memory,’ all the way to glass and the gold leaf of mosaics. Their counterparts are materials based on advanced and synergic experimentation with partners in various fields. We have chosen absolutely cutting-edge coatings for the construction, which protect people from a series of health threats because they are anallergic, to clad internal portions of the pavilion. With recycled plastics, we have made nautical rope for the atypical façades. This too can become a way to fight against the pollution of the seas. After this use, the plastic returns to its status as a raw material, ready to be reutilized for various forms and functions.

A special focus has been put on algae, a living, organic material that represents the most radical aspect of today’s design research. Seaweeds capture CO2 and purify the air; but when they are dried and processed they can also become edible, as in the case of spirulina, or be used to make yarns and fabrics. In the end, everything comes full circle.”

Natural-Artificial (text by Italo Rota)

“To do things differently, we simply have to make use of a future that already exists, exploring it with creativity. It is interesting to work in a more or less useful way with other forms of life, and also with plants, trying to understand our relationships with them. From my viewpoint, the pavilion is a big experimental installation on the theme of Natural-Artificial, rather than a work of architecture in the conventional sense, though it has the size of a very tall building with a very sophisticated structure. There is no opposition between architectural material and the garden in its plastic-free and bioclimate guise.

On the one hand, there is the importance of the natural landscape and botanical species, and their capacity to penetrate architecture in a spontaneous, non-programmed way, which is especially evident around the Mediterranean and therefore also inside the pavilion. Plants enrich sensory perception with evocative meaning. On the other hand, everything leads back to the production of neo-materials, new substances that have an organic and biological origin; they call for the use of pigments derived from natural ingredients, or from elements supplied by living beings; or in any case they come about through manufacturing generated by nature, with the use of bacteria and viruses that transform a material – generally waste from food processing – into a neo-material.

Of course this process should not be confused with recycling, because we are talking about the invention of new materials that have their own characteristics, and tomorrow can be reutilized in different forms, for different ends. This is a process governed by technology that interprets and achieves the invention, prototyping it. Because is we really want to have a structural material made with orange powder, we will have to make a prototype – which makes it real, not just an idea. The interesting thing is that we have attempted to incorporate sponsors and partners in this process of innovation, asking companies to take part in the detailed design of the pavilion.

A synergy thanks to which they can obtain a strong narrative thrust, while we gain the possibility of becoming teachers with respect to visitors, communicating the sphere of innovation in which they are moving. Each person is called upon to construct his or her own vision of sensorial architecture, thinking but also having fun. Just consider our clone of Michelangelo’s David, which brings a series of technological innovations: the clone is the scientific replication of something in a given moment.”

What do you want, brick?  (text by Carlo Ratti)

“When we talk about the relationship between architecture and materials, I am reminded of Louis Kahn, one of the great 20th-century masters: ‘You say to a brick, what do you want, brick? And the brick says to you: I like an arch.’ Behind this quip, we can glimpse a timeless truth: every substance is endowed with its own modes of formal expression. In recent years we have seen a proliferation of the techniques and materials available for design, which are starting to generate new formal canons. The project for the Italian Pavilion at Expo Dubai bears witness to our commitment, in this sense. While the worksite heads into its final phases, we have begun to unveil a glossary of experimental materials. After all, innovation in this field goes well beyond mere stylistic choices.

The environmental emergency impacting our planet demands that all disciplines and production sectors come to grips with their own responsibilities, developing strategies to reduce the harm being done to the earth. This is particularly true of the construction industry, which accounts for a sizeable share of global consumption. Therefore the Italian Pavilion starts with the premises of the circular economy. An approach that allows us to look at building components in an unprecedented way.

Let’s consider one of the elements that epitomizes modernity: plastic. Do we have to exclude it completely from the design of our furnishings and our buildings? If we are talking about plastic produced for the occasion, I believe the answer is undoubtedly yes. But the logic of the circular economy indicates a more virtuous direction. Using plastic remains possible, but on two conditions: the plastic has to already exist, meaning that it has already been recycled, and there have to be ways of recycling and composting it at the end of the project’s life span. In other words, the responsibilities of designers and of all the players in the industry are necessarily connected to the entire life cycle of materials.

We then have to insert another factor in our discussion: the digital dimension. Though it is not included in the glossary of component of the Italian Pavilion, it is the binder that allows us to combine and monitor the performance of very different and unusual substances – from algae to coffee, orange peel to mycelium. The digital can be seen as a material of the contemporary world, which can be seamlessly interfaced with ancient stones or the brick arches of Kahn. This is precisely how we can pave the way for new creative solutions, in relation to an entirely circular type of architecture: born, so to speak, from the earth, and ready to return to it without leaving traces of its passage. An architecture that blurs the boundaries between natural and artificial, in the framework of an ecology in which all physical objects are digitally connected, extracting data and communicating the conditions of the environment to us in real time, permitting specific, precise interventions for improvement.

At the start, we said that every different material element has its own alternative modes of expression. The present multiplication of construction materials means that in the years to come we will see the rise of a new repertoire of forms. The Italian Pavilion thus represents an extraordinary opportunity for collaborative experimentation. The teamwork of the last few months, which has involved not only the designers – the studio CRA and Italo Rota, with Matteo Gatto and F&M Ingegneria – but also the suppliers and the craftsmen, is the start of an important pathway. At the first Universal Exposition in the Arab world, the contributions of Italy’s participation will also include an experimental approach to the relationship between architecture and materials: for a more sustainable urban future.”