The UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo expresses British creativity and environmental engagement at the biggest event of its kind since the Expo phenomenon began in 1851 with the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace. Since then, there have been more than 50 Expos - which have also been known as World’s Fairs or World Expositions - and the most spectacular have included those at Chicago in 1893 and Paris in 1900. The latter attracted 50m visitors, a record at the time, setting an early benchmark for a country’s portrayal of innovation and progress.
The UK Pavilion has been designed by Heatherwick Studio. Led by the internationally-acclaimed Thomas Heatherwick, his design team won the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) commission to create the Pavilion following a competition that attracted a shortlist of ambitious architectural proposals from other teams led by Zaha Hadid Architects, John McAslan + Partners, Marks Barfield Architects, Avery Associates, and DRAW Architects with dcmstudios.
The concept behind thomas heatherwick's british pavilion at shanghai expo 2010, is an enclosure that throws outwards from all sides, a mass of long radiating cilia.
The centerpiece of the pavilion is the seed cathedral, a six storey high cube-like structure, pierced by approximately 60 000 7.5m long slim transparent acrylic rods which sway gently in response to any wind movement. during the day each of these rods will act like fibre optic filaments, drawing on daylight in order to illuminate the interior. at night, light sources at the interior end of each rod will allow the whole structure to glow from the outside.
The centerpiece of the pavilion is the seed cathedral, a six storey high cube-like structure, pierced by approximately 60 000 7.5m long slim transparent acrylic rods which sway gently in response to any wind movement. during the day each of these rods will act like fibre optic filaments, drawing on daylight in order to illuminate the interior. at night, light sources at the interior end of each rod will allow the whole structure to glow from the outside.
The pavilion will be situated on a landscape which resembles paper which once wrapped the building, but now lies unfolded on the site. the surrounding space will provide an open venue for public events and along with shelter for visitors.
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