Intervista a Tim Leigh, Sales & Marketing Director di Stage One – Padiglione UK a Expo Milano 2015

- What are the main materials used and why were they chosen? Resolution of any criticalities.

The Hive is built largely from aluminium with a small amount of steel where heavy loading of components occurs. Aluminium was chosen because of its light weight and ease of machining. Wolfgang was also keen to exploit the aesthetic qualities that can be achieved by the reflected light from the surface of the aluminium. The Hive structure contains 169,300 components and weighs approximately 52 tonnes.

The remainder of the Pavilion site uses plywood and weathering steel. The plywood we used comes from a sustainable source and is a cost effective construction material. The weathering steel was chosen for its aesthetic qualities. As the planting matured on the Pavilion site, so too the weathering steel would rust and change in character. It was this evolution in the look and feel of the Pavilion that was important to the designers.

- Relationship between professionals. With such complex design and construction works it is easy to have interference across skills and competencies. What interference have you encountered? How were they handled? Which criticalities have been resolved during the design phase and which ones during the construction phase?

This project was a real collaboration. BDP, Wolfgang, Tristan Simmons & Stage One were the key collaborators, however there were additional parties involved in some of the subcontract activities too. It wasn’t always easy, however any interference was largely due to the very compressed timeframes and tight budgets that were in play. Because Stage One had the role of Main Contractor we were responsible for the master schedule and delivering the project on time. Resolution was achieved by continual review of the process and very detailed planning.

During the design phase the main challenges were approach to construction and value engineering the design to meet the budget. During the construction phase the challenges were largely around scheduling of works in the most efficient manner.


- What computational tools have been used and how did the interaction with architectural design and plant engineering take place?

The structural engineering calculations for the Hive were performed by Tristan Simmonds Studio. He did the majority of the computation on the structure.
From a manufacturing point of view, all of the parts were drawn for manufacture by Stage One using AutoCAD Inventor. There were over 4,500 hours spent drawing the parts for the Pavilion.