BIOTOPIA — Iconic architecture meets great content

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15. Nov 2022 •• Press article •• 2 min read

German Garden, Floriade Expo 2022: By the time the international horticultural expo in Almere, the Netherlands, closed its doors, BIOTOPIA had welcomed 685,000 visitors. Reflecting the slogan of ‘Growing Green Cities’, Floriade explored potential solutions for a greener urban future. We presented ‘BIOTOPIA - Growing Community’ as the German Garden; an urban utopia promoting co-creativity, diversity and interaction: The German Garden was one of the most popular country pavilions as a result of its unique architecture and its impressive substance.

The pavilion had a sustainable, open-plan structure built with wood and glass in a cubist design that encouraged both curiosity and a spirit of discovery. In the interior, the role of the community was the central exhibition narrative – and BIOTOPIA positively encouraged active participation. Talking plants and walk-in urban vision collages with a periscope view of the underground world - plus fun interactive elements - communicated innovative solutions and best practice examples to the international audience in the four sub-themes of ‘Green’, ‘Food’, ‘Health’ and ‘Energy’.

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“The German Garden’s central narrative encouraging a common culture of change resulted in over 1.7 million icons collected by 79,000 members of the community.”

— Detlef Wintzen, Chief International Officer, insglück

A holistic experience with high quality of stay

“At its core, the German Garden was about creating a participatory place for further thinking and growing together. Architecture and exhibition formed a symbiotic unity that merged into an overall experience with a feeling of high quality during the visitors stay. BIOTOPIA presented itself as a living ecosystem, as a meeting space that is constantly emerging and growing”, says Detlef Wintzen, CIO and co-responsible for the creative concept.

A top-quality and enjoyable overall experience

“Basically, we wanted the German Garden to be a participative place that encouraged the community to think and grow. The architecture and exhibition elements formed a symbiotic unit, blended to create a top-quality and enjoyable overall experience. BIOTOPIA was a living ecosystem and a meeting space in a permanent process of genesis and growth”, said Detlef Wintzen, Chief International Officer insglück and co-director of the creative concept.

BIE Gold Award

The German Garden at Floriade Expo 2022 has already received its first award: the Gold Award in the category of ‘Official Participants – Outdoor Gardens’ from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation in charge of overseeing and regulating world expos.

Organisation, implementation and design

The German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) was responsible for the organisation, implementation and design of the German Garden at Floriade Expo 2022. The ministry commissioned Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH to implement the concept and the insglück agency was responsible for content and exhibits. The design and execution of the German Garden was in the hands of a consortium involving insglück Gesellschaft für Markeninszenierung mbH, gtp2 Architekten and studio grüngrau Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH.

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