Luminous Landscape

France and the fine art of dining are inseparable. Haute cuisine, the Michelin Guide and Paul Bocuse are a few of the internationally acclaimed things to come out of "the Hexagon." At last year's World Expo in Milan, France used the slogan to defend its image as a country at the forefront of global food culture. Vive la France!  Just as French chefs base their cuisine on the source of their ingredients, the 2014 competition-winning design by Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières of XTU asserted that the French pavilion should deal with the agricultural landscape and the archetype of the market. "Les Halles," as the famous Parisian markets became known, started in the mid-18th century by Victor Baltard. Inspired by the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the halls were like pavilions of light, bringing wonder to the experience of food shopping. This archetype led XTU to design a compact pavilion with everything of necessity under one roof, its shape inspired by the hexagonal shape of France's borders.

Inside, the organic shape of the roof displays the second conceptual idea: a grid-like structure made of glulam (French spruce inside and Larch outside) that creates an overhead topography symbolizing the agricultural landscape of France. The architects wanted to point out that France, despite its progress, is still a traditionally an agricultural nation, a land with great geological diversity. The construction consisted of more than 2,000 individual parts fitted together in a manner so there was no sticky residue after dismantling, and so the materials can be assembled again in the future.

The roof and exhibits were set by the renowned design office Licht Kunst Licht from Bonn. Their lighting system consisted of three, selectively used levels: path lighting, general lighting and accent lighting. The simulated growing field at the entrance was illuminated by hidden LED strips set into the railing and accented by irregularly arranged light bars. In the exhibition hall, pivoting lights illuminated the objects tucked into the chambers of the wooden structure, while general lighting was provide by virtually invisible uplights. For accent lighting of individual exhibits, the lighting designers selected spotlights by iGuzzini with a high color rendition. In total, the multifaceted lighting experience supported the striking architecture and drew the visitors attention to the dramatic display of the exhibits within the organic roofscape.

Published originally as "Leuchtende Landschaft" on German-Architects.