Expo CIHAC is the biggest annual architecture and construction exhibition in Latin America. Like many other exhibitions, it creates large-scale contamination due to the excess waste it generates. Almost all the pavilions of the different brands and products related to the architecture and construction industry, end up in the trash. Deeply concerned by this, we approached the exhibition principals with the proposal of creating a low cost - zero waste sustainable pavilion that could set an example for future exhibitions. Inspired by the upcycling movement, we conceived a pavilion made up exclusively of soda crates piled on top of each other. First, we presented the project to a major soda company, to get them to sponsor and lend us the soda crates. Second, we convinced the exhibition principals to let us build the exhibition's cafeteria, which was never given any thought design wise, with 5,000 soda crates as an Upcycling Pavilion. Besides the aesthetic qualities and the environmental virtues they saw in it, our biggest selling point was that it would not cost them a cent. The soda crates were piled on top of each other and simply tied to one another with small plastic cinch straps to create the walls. The curved walls are not gratuitous; they give structure and let you go up to 5 meters in height. The walls end in diagonal lines that meet the floor in order for them to have more stability. Our intervention served as an example for unconventional and outside the box solutions for creating low cost and zero waste pavilions. When the exhibition came to an end, the pavilion was dismantled, the plastic cinch straps were collected and recycled and the soda crates were returned to Coca Cola to continue being used for what they were originally created: carrying soda pops.

Links:
- https://vimeo.com/66860291