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Archive for the ‘Expo 2010 Shanghai China’ Category

Hungary inveiled the design for their pavillion for next year’s Shanghai World Expo, designed by Tamás Lévai. Gömböc, as a hungarian invention, is the central element of the exhibition, a two meter high solid plexiglass moving object.

What is Gömböc (pronounced as ‘goemboets‘)? ‘Gömböc’ is the first known homogenous object with one stable and one unstable equilibrium point, thus with two equilibria altogether on a horizontal surface. It can be proven that no object with less than two equilibria exists. The discovery of the inaccessible path has led to the idea of GÖMBÖC. The pavilion as wood is intended to represent this path, and since it is of immaterial nature, we are trying to evoke it with non materials: empty space, light and sounds.

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The France Pavilion, designed by Jacques Ferrier and his team, provides a unique opportunity to reinforce France’s image in China. All the talents and financial forces will be gathered to make it real, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a statement when he decided to pick this design.

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Flying kites on a warm sunny day is a favorite activity for children all across the world. At the World Expo Shanghai next year, those sweet childhood memories can be recalled at the Mexico Pavilion. People will see no building, but a 4,000-square-meter area covered in grass with hundreds of colorful Mexican kites flying in the sky.

Visitors can read a book, have a picnic or simply relax on the grass under the shade of the kites. They can also buy a traditional Mexican-style kite from the pavilion and fly it to recall the fun of their childhoods. You can even learn how to make a unique Mexican kite as the souvenir.

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The pavilion is a monolithic steel structure designed as a double spiral taking the visitors from the ground and through two curves up to a level of 20 metres and down again. The spiral lightly touches the ground floor, which encircles a paddling pool with the Little Mermaid in the centre.

The roof is covered in a light blue artificial material, known from Danish cycle paths. Inside, the floor also features the blue cycle path where the bikes pass through the building.

The steel of the facade is perforated in a pattern that creates the silhouette of a Danish metropolis. From the outside, the pavilion’s inner life shines through in the shape of the silhouettes of cyclists and pedestrians as they pass by.

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Poland has unveiled the architectural design for its national pavilion in World Expo Shanghai 2010, presenting a geometrical structure covered with paper-cutting pattern. The design of the 3,000-square-meter Poland Pavilion is the winning entry chosen from 20 candidates in the designing competition and was designed by Arch. Marcin Mostafa, Arch. Natalia Paszkowska and Arch. Wojciech Kakowski.

More images and full description after the break.

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The Pavilion of Ideas, designed by Heatherwick Studio, beat five other short-listed designs, including plans put forward by the creators of the London Eye — the largest Ferris wheel in the world — to become final the winner. The pavilion looks like a box with thousands of spines that hover without visible support above a public square.

All the spines, which can swing in the breeze, are tipped with tiny colored light sources which can display a variety of images together.

“The image can be changed every day or every week. If people love to see David Beckham, we will play Beckham’s picture. If Louis Hamilton wins the F1 Championship, maybe we will show Hamilton,”

Inside the pavilion, visitors will see an enormous digital screen showing various contents. The outside area of the pavilion will be an exhibition space and auditorium as well as a cafe and shops surrounded by two strips of grass. The pavilion will be as ecological as possible and the designers are trying to make all the aspects recyclable and carbon-neutral. It is light, without heavy concrete foundations and will “touch the ground softly,” according to the introduction by Heatherwich.

“We were really energized by the uniqueness of the concept and the way it integrated technology with a sensory experience for visitors,” said the jury leader Lord Jones of Birmingham, Trade and Investment Minister.

“It will be a spectacular pavilion that responds to what visitors say and feel and at the same time showcases the very best of brand Britain.”

From Heatherwick Studio
The Pavilion of Ideas is a unique display device – an enclosure that throws out from all faces a mass of long, radiating cilia, each ending with a tiny light source. Their length means they gently sway in response to any wind movement.

These cilia, or staves, provide the Pavilion with its only means of support. It rests on its soft forest in an urban field, flanked by two ramped, embracing arms of grass, formed as ramparts under which an auditorium, exhibition space, café, shop and reception spaces are sited. The architecture eschews the need for significant concrete foundations and aims to use simple construction techniques to touch lightly on the site.

Above and peering into these spaces, the Pavilion flickers with patterns of light as it sends its messages, and those of its visitors, across the site. Each cilium terminates within the Pavilion – with another tiny light source. Inside, clustered together by the form of the structure, they create an enormous engulfing digital screen. This is how the British Pavilion’s content is expressed – outwardly as well as inwardly.

The 6,000-square-meter Canada Pavilion, among the biggest at the site, will feature an exhibition themed “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative.” The pavilion is about the size of two-and-a-half NHL ice hockey rinks, said Susan Gregson, Canada’s consul general in Shanghai. It is expected to welcome up to 5.5 million people or 30,000 visitors per day during the six-month Expo period.

The pavilion will be anchored by an open public place and surrounded by three large structures. The square will be a performing area, where visitors can watch the performances of Cirque du Soleil before checking out the pavilion, said Gregson.

The overall budget for the Canadian pavilion will be 45 million Canadian dollars (US$43.57 million), she added. Canada has also given environmental protection consideration into the pavilion. Part of the pavilion’s exterior walls will be covered by a special kind of greenery and rainwater will be collected by a drainage system for use inside the pavilion.

Cirque du Soleil created the concept design for the Canada Pavilion, said Gregson. The country is still searching for contractors for its architectural services, constructions and technical operations, whose public tendering is being processed by Canadian Heritage. Canada is the 11th participant to sign a participation contract with the organizers.

Cirque du Soleil will also create public performances, organize cultural programs and develop strategic corporate alliances for the pavilion. The troupe made its debut on the Chinese mainland last summer, bringing the Quidam show to Shanghai, its only stop in China. Cirque du Soleil was founded by Guy Laliberte, a member of a ragtag band of street performers from the Canadian province of Quebec in 1984.

The entertainment troupe now employs about 3,000 people on three continents and takes in about US$400 million in revenues annually.

The Spain Pavilion will have a steel structure and a wicker cover. Spanish handcrafters will weave out different patterns by using different colors of wicker, said Benedetta Tagliabue, designer of the pavilion. The wicker will be covered by a special material that is water-proof. It will also keep the pavilion at a comfortable temperature, said Tagliabue.

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The idea “forest and fortress” comes from the literal meaning of the Chinese term for Luxembourg. The pavilion, built from steel, wood and glass, will be an open fortress around with greenery. The 15-meter-high main structure will resemble an ancient castle with large openings surrounded by medieval towers,

“All the materials are recyclable,” said the architect of the pavilion, Francois Valentiny. Also, the outside walls will be translucent, on which Chinese characters will be shown. The exhibition area of the pavilion is about 1,300 square meters. The downstairs hall will stage a satellite video show displaying live scenes from the country. “Visitors will be able to talk with Luxembourg people through satellite. And we will bring live programs of Luxembourg events here,” said Jeannot Krecke, the country’s Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade.

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Buchner Bründler architects
Switzerland unveiled the model of its national pavilion for World Expo Shanghai, a pavilion with soybean-fibre coverage and entertaining rooftop cable cars.

The design, chosen out of the 104 candidates through a world-wide competition, focuses on the sustainable development as well as harmony and balance, which coincide with the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang. For the 4,000 square meter pavilion, the Swiss government poured 140 million yuan (US$18.52 million) into the project, which is bigger than the budget in Aichi Expo in 2005 and Hanover Expo in 2000.

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