В Media Center Ukraine happened briefing Ukrainian organizers of EXPO-2030 — Deputy Head of Odesa State Administration Roman Hrygoryshyn, Director of Zaha Hadid Architects Manuela Gatto and Zhanna Kyseleva — founder and art director of JKLab architects, head of the Design Council of Odesa City Council.
In his speech, Roman Hrygoryshyn spoke in general terms about the importance of the event for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. He noted that, currently, of the three candidate countries for EXPO-2030 (South Korea, Italy and Saudi Arabia), only Saudi Arabia is a serious competitor.
"The chances of South Korea and Italy are not as great as those of us and Saudi Arabia», — believes the official, in his opinion, in the struggle for holding the EXPO «either support for Ukraine in its recovery or money will win, because Saudi Arabia will be able to easily financially ensure the holding of such an event quickly and efficiently».
To the question regarding opportunity to get acquainted with the dossier, which Ukraine submitted to the International Bureau of Exhibitions in Paris (BIE) September 7, Mr. Hrygoryshyn promised again, that it will be published in the near future, as well as information about the work experience of EXPO 2030 Odesa team members.
Note that on site there were changes and additions to the organizing committee: NGO "Public Council of EXPO-2030 Odesa", which was managed by Victoria Melnychenko, is now headed by Yevhen Levyenberg, who was previously listed as the director of LLC "LEV GROUP", but in registry, as of October 30, 2022, Victoria Melnychenko is still the head of the NGO "Public Council EXPO-2030 Odesa".
Journalists inquired about plans and actions for the EXPO in case if the war in Ukraine does not end in a year. The deputy head of the State Administration replied that, "the reference mission from the International Bureau of Exhibitions to Ukraine is planned for the period from January to March 2023. We were assured that everything will be done to put our country on an equal footing with competitors, and the mission will take place in any circumstances - offline or online. And even in the case of major security risks according to the Bureau's regulations, the country that received the second place will receive the right to hold the EXPO, if the winner is unable to organize the event.".
The second speaker at the briefing was Manuela Gatto, director of Zaha Hadid Architects, which developed the architectural concept for the Odessa project.
With extensive experience in creating transformative architecture, Manuela has taught in Venice and the Architectural Association in London, lectured at universities in Hong Kong, Rome, Tel Aviv, Belgium and Austria.
Today, she is the project director of the Dnipro metro station in Ukraine, the Mercury Hotel and Residential Towers in Malta, and several projects in China.
The architect said that during the construction of the pavilions for EXPO 2030 in Odesa, the emphasis will be on energy efficiency, ecological construction and the use of Ukrainian materials. Everything will be done so that after the end of the event, all construction objects can become part of the urban infrastructure of Odessa.
"We hope that EXPO will turn Odessa into an exhibition hub in Ukraine. The premises were designed in such a way that they could be used even after the event and were flexible to design changes and rearrangements for other purposes. We also plan to involve the university and IT environment of Odesa in the design of the pavilions, in order to prevent the leakage of "brains" from the country. Manuela Gatto said.
Unfortunately, no conceptually new solutions were announced at the briefing, which would help Odesa to become the winner in the fight for hosting the EXPO. We hope that the organizers still have a chance to rectify the situation.
