Land Design plans Expo 2005 pavilion

Exhibition consultancy Land Design Studio is to create design concepts for the UK Pavilion at Expo 2005 in Japan.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office awarded the £3m contract to the consultancy, which is part of a Ten Alps Events-led consortium, in late April following a six-way competitive tender.

The Natural History Museum will provide content for the space, while events and exhibition organiser Ten Alps Events will oversee its build, operation and marketing.

Designs for the UK Pavilion, which will be based on the theme of ‘nature’s matrix’, are being kept under wraps, but Land Design Studio creative director Peter Higgins says the space will be divided into external and internal areas.

The external environment (concept pictured left) will feature a ‘microcosm woodland’ by landscape architect Andrew Grant Associates. ‘We’re commissioning British artists to install artwork there that will raise issues of how we need to sustain the earth,’ explains Higgins.

The UK Pavilion’s interior, which he describes as a counterpoint to the garden, will provide an ‘immersive, sensory environment’.

‘It will look at how nature has supported man, and how man has drawn from earth’s resources to create solutions,’ says Higgins, citing the inspiration that lily pads provided for Crystal Palace’s architects and engineers.

Expo 2005 will run from March through September in Aichi, Japan. Work on the UK Pavilion begins immediately, with creative plans scheduled for release at the beginning of next year.