piet niemann unveils expo 2000 – 20 years later
Hamburg-based photographer Piet Niemann unveils his newest work, Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later, a photobook that gives a nuanced visible retrospective of the Expo web site in Hannover, Germany, twenty years post-event. Honored on the 2023 European Architectural Images Award, Niemann’s assortment not solely gives a glimpse into the previous, but in addition prompts contemplation on the modern and future landscapes of our constructed surroundings.
At a time when the development business shoulders roughly forty p.c of world CO2 emissions, and issues just like the round economic system, materials shortage, and reuse are prevalent, Piet Niemann’s photobook turns into a well timed catalyst for dialogues on sustainability and accountability in building. ‘Expo 2000 was a logo of a promising, sustainable future. However how has that promise developed over the previous twenty years?’ he questions. His pictures from 2020 not solely doc the tangible remnants of Expo 2000 but in addition problem viewers to ponder the belief and fulfilment of the optimistic imaginative and prescient it as soon as represented.
central view onto the Expo-Plaza from the German Pavilion | all pictures © Piet Niemann
the photobook chronicles the evolution of the location
Piet Niemann, having contributed to famend architectural corporations like Zaha Hadid Architects and Delugan Meissl Related Architects, distinguishes himself as an architectural photographer with a penchant for macro-sociological tasks. Characterised by indifferent and sober observations, Niemann’s method captures the social and architectural evolution of our environment. In Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later, he employs this attitude to chronicle the transformations on the Expo web site throughout 128 pages. His lens not solely captures the deserted pavilions but in addition the traces of nature which have steadily reclaimed the location, underscoring the fragility and resilience of the constructed surroundings.
Within the foreword to Niemann’s e book, structure journalist Benedikt Crone writes: ‘Niemann’s pictures present the state of issues in 2020 in fog-shrouded honesty. The photographer occurred upon the concrete skeleton of the Netherlands Pavilion, the scholar dormitories organized in rows in entrance of an open panorama, and the deserted, bright-yellow pavilion of Lithuania, behind which, separated by a meadow, an IKEA outlet is now situated in corresponding colours.’ In his essay The Fantastic thing about a Destroy, Jacob van Rijs of architectural agency MVRDV gives an outline of the Dutch pavilion’s origins and growth as much as its transformation into a recent legacy. Of the present transformation of the pavilion, he says: ‘we’re turning a short lived mission right into a everlasting constructing, whereas protecting the unique spirit of the design. […] Possibly that’s why I discover Piet Niemann’s photographs so particular. They present an intermediate second for the pavilion; you don’t know whether or not it is going to keep or go.’
an higher stage of the pavilion featured a forest by means of which guests might stroll
the Netherlands Pavilion, as soon as the unofficial emblem and crowd-drawer of the Expo 2000
As an alternative of renovating the misaligned stairs resulting in the subway station, the entry was completely blocked
the japanese exit of the subway station that results in the deliberate municipal district is just now being constructed
the Lithuanian Pavilion was celebrated because the second architectural spotlight after the Netherlands Pavilion
Piet Niemann, an architectural photographer of public buildings
mission information:
title: Expo 2000 — 20 Years Later
photographer: Piet Niemann
writer: Kerber Verlag
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edited by: ravail khan | designboom
