Cocoa Cluster_Milano Expo 2015

Il concept del Cocoa Cluster dell'Expo Milano 2015 e' stato prodotto da un workshop tenutosi presso il Politecnico di Milano nell'Ottobre, condotto da un gruppo di docenti della medesima universita' (Fabrizio Leoni, Mauricio Cardenas, Cesare Ventura), assistenti della Facolta' di Architettura e esperti esterni, coordinati, in qualita' di docente capofila, da Fabrizio Leoni; e a cui parteciparono studenti del medesimo Ateneo, del ITESM di Monterrey e della SUSPI, Lugano. Successivamente, tale concept, per incarico di Expo Spa, e' stato sviluppato in progetto definitivo da Fabrizio Leoni, Mauricio Cardenas, Cesare Ventura, in cooperazione con Fiera Milano. The Milan Expo 2015 Cluster dedicated to the Cocoa products of emerging countries from Africa and Latin America depicts the mise en scène of some possible representations of processes, forms and stories associated with Cocoa. This cluster has been designed having in mind the allegoric image of the highly characterized landscape where the cocoa is actually grown: a tropical environment whose topographically complex ground is represented -in our project- by smoothly moving up and down a variety of gentle triangulated slopes. An environment featuring an invasive vegetation that vehemently emerges and strongly colonizes the space among the buildings, aggressing those buildings and compromising their static equilibrium and their geometry. At that point the skin of the pavilions, a lightweight fabric that metaphorically protects the precious contents of Cocoa products, opens and unfolds, letting at sight the internal structures. The jungle trees, individually, in pairs or groups, are transfigured into poles or urban furniture systems, playing different roles: they define functional areas, they act as landmarks, they support the different levels of lighting or the speakers and they orient visitors into this vibrant magnificent artificial tropical jungle-plateau.