Barilla Pavilion

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security, and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.

Ban Ki-moon

There is something fundamental about the practice of preparing food: it is always a kindness, a communion, a wish that you will be well, that you will be healthy, that you will be replete and feel warm and safe. And learning to cook is hospitable and collective, it comes with conversation and togetherness, it is the bond of family and friendship, the connection to community and culture.

A.A.Gill

These two quotes reveal the breadth of food’s role in life; from macro-economic challenges of scarcity to the simple, essential role in community and wellbeing.

Architecture AND's proposal for the Barilla Pavilion sought to create a place where the delights and opportunities of food are explored and experienced. The proposal sought to create a setting where these critical dialogues are progressed, contributing to the scaffold of a new world and intertwined with pleasure and sociability, recognising the interdependence of rational problem-solving and delight, becoming a house for Barilla.

The delight of a curving path.

The curving path is a common element in the experience of landscape. Coastal trails, farm roads, desire lines of botanic gardens; the simple curve holds a quality of movement, promoting discovery and anticipation. The end of the path cannot be seen and surprise lies around the corner. Whilst ubiquitous to landscape experience, when treated as architecture, the curving path takes on a special intensity. Whereas functionalist architecture may promote a direct movement from A to B in support of efficiency, a contemporary approach may recognize value in a pathway of discovery between experiences; an architecture of wandering and wondering.

The path widens and narrows to accommodate program. The activities from within the rectilinear volumes (research, cooking, art collection, start-up etc) blend out into the loop to interface ambiguously with the circulation. A spiral peels off the loop to provide accessible connection to the upper level experience space.

Linear elements follow the sweep of the path, such as a long table that can accommodate 300 people in a celebratory mode.

The new pavilion is stitched into the existing campus, with pathways peeling off the loop to connect to the existing buildings and entry points. The rectilinear volumes of the pavilion are oriented according to the predominant grid of the campus. These formal and physical linkages enable the existing campus to be reimagined by association. This is a significant gesture, because the intent of the project is to bring the entirety of the Barilla organisation forward. By comparison, a visually disconnected building with entirely contrasting form may have an significant immediate impact but be of momentary and diminishing effect.