Expo.02, Towers of Biel, Switzerland

Expo.02, Towers of Biel, Switzerland

Towers are regarded as signs of power and symbols of freedom, and to architects they’re erotic signals of the human desire to be “monarch of all I survey” – as the parable of the Tower of Babel tells us. The design for Expo.02 was orientated on strategies of urban construction to create reference points for further developments. All functional preconditions were integrated into the urban masterplanning, enabling designers to react to changes in a flexible way. The site of the great exhibition was conceived as a roofed platform jutting out over Lake Biel and ending in a space with three towers coincidentally and fully intentionally resembling an aircraft carrier. Under the roof, the platform is available for multi-use purposes while the towers are visible as giant signs by day and experienced as sculptures of sound and light by night, “emphasising the vivacious transistor-like character of
Expo.02.” Completed May 2002.