Sales Agent to manage the sale of the Milan Expo UK Pavilion Assets

The UK participated at the World Expo 2015 in Milan from 1 May to 31 October. The core theme of the Milan Expo was Feeding the planet, Energy for life and the UK’s national theme was ‘Grown in Britain and Northern Ireland'.

Led by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and with support from seven HM Government departments, a stand-out UK Pavilion inspired by the role of the bee in the global ecosystem was created to offer visitors a unique experiential journey. The UK Pavilion includes a 50 tonne 'Hive' structure which is a 14 metre cuboid lattice inspired by the shape of a honeycomb.

There are 32 horizontal layers which are intricately made up of over 169,000 individual structural components and the hive as a whole pulses and buzzes with links to the movement of bees in a real beehive in the UK. There are also 891 LED lights within the hive representing the UK bees.

At the Expo awards ceremony the Pavilion was awarded the World Expo organising committee’s highest design accolade, The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) gold award for architecture and landscape. Details of the gold award can be found at the attached link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gold-award-for-british... This was not the only accolade awarded to the UK Pavilion however, a host of other design awards, including Blueprint’s award for Best Public Use Project with Public Funding and an international jury prize from the Italian National Association of Architects we're all given to the Pavilion during the Expo.

The UK Pavilion Assets and associated IPR is being made available for sale in one lot although some elements of the UK Pavilion will have been disposed of as part of the initial site clearance exercise (Pavilion orchard, swarm wall, meadow, walkway, terrace and conference area). So, in practice we will be selling both physical assets (the Hive which will be carefully dismantled, labelled and packed) plus design assets (rest of the UK Pavilion) giving the buyer flexibility to re-create when they re-build.

UKTI requires Sales Agent to act on the departments behalf to solicit interest to from third parties to purchase the UK Pavilion Assets and keep them publically accessible. The Sales Agent must be able to act instantly upon award of the contract to fulfil UKTI's needs. The Sales Agent will manage the sale in accordance with the conditions of sale.