The Danish Pavilion in Expo 2010 Shanghai is a loop, a velodrom and an interactive fairytale
BIG, 2+1 and ARUP relaunch the bike as a modern and sustainable urban alternative to the increasing car traffic in Shanghai.The pavilion’s 1500 city bikes are offered for general use to the visitors during EXPO 2010. After the World Expo, it can be moved and relocated for example in People’s Park - as a transferium for the bikes of Shanghai. The building is a loop, housing the exhibition “wellfairytales” in a linear sequence.
Niels Lund Petersen, associate and project leader at BIG says: "The Danish pavilion should not only exhibit the Danish virtues. Through interaction, the visitors are able to actually experience some of Copenhagen’s best attractions – the city bike, the harbor bath, the nature playground and an ecological picnic”
Both Shanghai and Copenhagen are harbor cities. But in Denmark the polluted harbor activities have been replaced by harbor parks and cultural institutions, and the water is so pure that you can swim in it. In the heart of the pavillion you find the Mermaid pool, which is filled with sea water from Copenhagen’s harbor, brought to Shanghai on a tanker.
vic:
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/shanghai/shanghai_expo_danish_pavilion.htm
HEATHERWICK'S PAVILION TO SPEARHEAD UK CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AT SHANGHAI EXPO 2010
* Expo : key opportunity to enhance UK-China partnership through Arts, Education, Culture, Business, Science and Climate Change
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office today reveals updated designs for the UK pavilion that will represent this country at Shanghai Expo 2010; its theme being 'Better City, Better Life'. Developed by one of the UK's leading creative talents - Thomas Heatherwick - the UK pavilion will provide a dramatic demonstration of creativity and innovation in the UK.
The centrepiece of the UK's offering is the extraordinary pavilion building - a six storey high object formed from some 60,000 slender transparent rods, which will extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of these 7.5m long rods will act like fibre optic filaments, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, thereby creating a contemplative awe-inspiring space. At night, light sources at the interior end of each rod will allow the whole structure to glow. The pavilion will sit on a landscape looking like paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site. The landscape provides an open space for public events and shelter for visitors making their way into the pavilion structure.
vic:
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/shanghai/shanghai_expo_building.htm
