Feature: Expo Milano 2015 reinvents exhibit format for countries without self-built pavilions

The upcoming Expo Milano 2015 has invented the "Clusters," or thematic containers for those countries unable to build their own pavilions.

Some of the countries participating in world expositions lack in the economic wherewithal to construct their own national pavilions, Expo Sole Commissioner of the Italian government Giuseppe Sala explained to journalists of the Milan Foreign Press Association earlier this week.

The world expositions of the past used to gather such countries in "Joint pavilions," organized on the basis of geographical zones, he noted.

"We imagined a different, innovative format aimed at highlighting the excellencies of those countries that despite lacking economic means have many strengths in certain sectors," Sala went on saying.

Thus, the Expo Milano 2015 launched nine "Clusters," that is to say places of cohabitation based on shared topics connected with the expo's theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" dedicated to food and sustainable approach to nutrition, he said.

The Clusters will represent the main categories of agriculture and food (rice, cacao, coffee, fruit and legumes, spices, cereals and tubers) or related environmental factors (sea and islands, bio-Mediterranean and arid zones).

They were developed through a design process involving students and teachers from nearly 20 schools and universities of architecture and design in the world.

Sala said that Clusters are now in the construction phase and many of the 148 participant countries, of which 53 will have self-built pavilions, have already registered to take part.

Expo Milano 2015 will run from May 1 to Oct. 31 on a site spanning 1.1 million square meters in the north-western part of Milan.

The six-month event is expected to attract some 20 million visitors. Less than 100 days before the opening, organizers have sold as many as 8 million tickets, of which 5 million abroad, Sala said. Endit