In collaboration with exhibition designers Think!OTS, the project focused on the theme of the Exposition - Natures Wisdom and the three sub-themes - Natures Matrix, The Art of Life, and the Development of Eco-Communities – and created a show in three acts, representing the past, the present and the future.
The pavilion housed a sequence of exhibition and gallery spaces, the public show and retail, food and beverage areas on the ground floor. The VIP Trade Floor, The DFAT and Commissioner General Offices, Meeting rooms, function spaces and bathroom facilities are located on a mezzanine. The Australian Pavilion was awarded the Silver Medal at the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) awards.
himmelzimmer is an architectural design practice in Melbourne dedicated to investigating an architecture that evolves from a continuous dialogue of imaginative and practical thinking.
As a studio we need to be able to define what building/design we aspire to the most:
For us this is ‘a room in the sky’, a ‘himmelzimmer’.
From its open window we can see the endless sky encouraging us that our ideas should be dream-like without boundaries. With its window closed we can focus on the work on our desk in front of us, the technical delivery of our ideas.
All our designs evolve from the dialogue of these two perspectives which are both essential in the delivery of well-executed buildings that inspire and transcend the ordinary.
Our work is at its most successful where our window to the world is in a constant state of in-between, where it is simultaneously closed and open.
We started in 2003 as studio505.
Following studio505’s closure in 2016 we are continuing our work as himmelzimmer