Did you borrow the crates from Polish apple-growers?
PM: That would be ideal, but construction has its own rules. In fact these are prefabricated wooden elements in 3x4-metre modules which remind of real crates. This technology speeds up the assembly. Time determined the method of the building’s construction.
MA: The Expo's organisers wanted most of the materials to be suitable for recycling, for repeated use. Of course, we’re making an exhibition, after the exhibition we have to dismantle it. So monolithic reinforced concrete columns permanently attached to the ground would be a hassle to dismantle. But we couldn’t completely avoid concrete, precisely because of the time.
The building is prefabricated in Poland, it travels in pieces and is assembled on the spot. Polished sheet metals, which are supposed to create a mirror effect, make up parts of the building.
MA: We wanted to find ourselves in an orchard. Imagine: you’re walking through Expo’s main alley, you see a narrow pavilion, because the Polish pavilion stands on a long and narrow lot, you enter and suddenly it turns out that there's an endless landscape stuffed in a tight crate. It should surprise visitors and transport them to a Polish landscape and a Polish orchard.
In the beginning, this orchard was just a farm. Now it has evolved into more of an enchanted garden. So we installed high grasses, mosses, flowers. So, an orchard hemmed with a meadow. At events like Expo or the Venice Biennale, visitors only have a day, a few days at most, to pass through tens of pavilions, this year 147 countries will take part in Expo. They won’t be able to see the majority of them, because they'll simply be exhausted.
Did you design the pavilion for tired visitors?
PM: We planned this area for relaxation, to slow down. But for the event’s organiser, the only rational measure of a pavilion’s success is the number of visitors that have passed through it. They’d rather welcome a hundred visitors each hour, so it’s possible that the area for relaxation and pause will become a hurried space.
What will happen inside the pavilion?
PM: Major events will take place on a concert stage outside the pavilion. The garden itself needs constant care and is very delicate. No greenery would withstand such an amount of people. So we’ve got an alley that goes through the garden. It’s difficult to organise events in there, but the pavilion is to act on numerous senses, not just sight, but also hearing and smell.
Back in the 70s, Steve Jobs worked in a Californian orchard; that’s how he came up with the idea of naming his company Apple. Maybe you should organise an apple-picking event? What about the tagline “feel like a Pole doing seasonal labour”?
PM: We wrote about workshops on an apple tree’s growth cycle in the first descriptions of our project. Decorative apple trees don’t grow such plump and tasty apples – but we will accomplish the visual effect that we desire.
How do you rate other national pavilions? Which ones are noteworthy?
MA: Personally, I really like the Austrian pavilion. Its authors let a forest inside. A typical, coniferous, Alpine forest stretches from the very beginning of the Austrian lot. And the dwarf mountain pine is simply captured in a box with a hole in the top.
So is the pavilion akin to the Polish one?
MA: To a certain extent, yes. But what is cool and what we’re jealous of is that the Austrian exposition is simply the forest. Somewhere at the back, there is a tiny office and information section – required by Expo's organiser's and Austrian representatives. The Polish contracting authority, the Polish agencies, expected the exposition to be more than the orchard. They needed a lot of space for stalls, shops, etc. A complete answer to feeding the planet is, according to the contracting authority, not enough, and the garden alone won’t be sufficient for visitors.
PM: This is supposedly the third biggest pavilion in terms of functional space. The project is about 2000m2, of which 500 is the garden and 1000 dedicated to souvenir shops, backstage sections, etc.
What should we be proud of at Expo, other than the Mazovian orchard?
PM: We tried to create the distinctive Polish microclimate, create a substitute for transferring the visitors into a Polish landscape. If some of the visitors get involved in the Polish orchard’s story, we’ll call it a success. It’s quite difficult, but as in the Austrian pavilion, it’s about some kind of modesty. That even modest means of expression can create an effect; there is no pressure to be the best, the biggest, because we’ve got something exceptionally great.
MA: Many pavilions put a lot of money into exhibitions stuffed with electronics, wrapped in kilometres of cables, simply with a pile of money, which disappears after a moment. For us it was important to use simple technology. We’re not thoughtlessly wasting money, but we show that a nice structure and interesting architecture can simply be made of cheap crates.
What is to be the pavilion's afterlife?
PM: It’s really uncommon to skilfully adapt or transfer pavilions. Expo requires quick disassembly of the objects right after the event is over. The exhibition ends in October and all pavilions must be dismounted and removed from Milan before the end of December. Hence we chose a method that enables fast assembly and fast disassembly. Basically, the entire structure can be folded. As for moving it – this is possible, but I don’t know who would like to take such a pavilion.
You like to present your projects with exceptionally interesting mock-ups. How did you acquire such a skill?
PM: For the first years of our activity, up until last year, we dealt mainly with making mock-ups for other architects. We don’t make typical mock-ups, as for developers, but sensible models, often made of wood, which are pretty objects by themselves. This mock-up activity allowed our studio to function for the first few years. It would be difficult for us to start otherwise, with no brand or orders. Now we've finished making mock-ups for others, because we've started to win things, and to implement, because the pavilion will be our first serious implementation. But the mock-ups are still our support.
In the days of 3D visualisations, Polish architects don’t use mock-ups for designing much anymore, they use computers. It’s only after realisation that we can see negative effects of not working with a mock-up.
MA: If one uses a mock-up, it’s often to present a completed object, not to work on some problem. 90% of mock-ups are made to convince a client, not to present a prototype in a creation process, to verify the project’s quality.
PM: Visualisation misleads the eye. An investor can be charmed. One can even deceive oneself. And a mock-up is ruthlessly genuine. It will show everything.
Interview by Franciszek Sterczewski.
Source: www.notesna6tygodni.pl, April 2015.