Expo Shanghai 2010 – Technology and Sustainability
True to the tradition of the World Exposition ever since its creation in 1851, the Expo 2010 Shanghai is an experimental workshop for new architectures and technologies. And in spite of the global economic crisis, the Chinese edition is a showcase for innovative and sustainable solutions in line with the current ecologist trend, as witnessed by what seems bound to become the building-symbol of the exposition “Better City, Better Life”.
Designed by artist and architect Thomas Heatherwick, the central fulcrum of the pavilion of Great Britain is the so-called “Seed Cathedral”, a single cubic volume whose skin is formed of 60,000 slender transparent rods which, apart from channelling the light inside, act as illuminating LEDs by night. The elements are fixed to the main structure at one end, but are free to move with the wind. In the interior they are grouped so as to form the pixels of an enormous interactive surface.
The visitors may discover and explore the seed varieties installed in the tips of the rods, which come from the Botanic Institute of Kunming; they have been selected thanks to the Kew Millennium Seed Bank, an international project launched in 2000 by the Royal Botanical Gardens of England, aimed at the conservation and appreciation of the different biodiversities and their fundamental role in the life of the planet. Environmentally sustainable measures have also been included in the design of the Canadian pavilion. While the external facade, featuring a triangular geometry, is faced with wooden staves, the skin of the internal square will be covered naturally by a special type of climbing plant, which will protect the interior of the exhibition spaces from the sun.
The Canadian pavilion, built by SNC-Lavalin inc., a national engineering and construction company, houses the theme exhibition “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative”. Cirque du Soleil, which has collaborated in the ideation and planning of the pavilion, has also developed the cultural programmes and the communicative strategies for the companies involved, and is responsible for the organization of the public performances which will be held in the central court, which has been conceived and realized as an enormous theatre stage.
Also the Danish pavilion of the emergent BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, is principally aimed at a sustainability of a social and participative kind. A playful process will offer the visitors a real experience of some of the best-known attractions of Copenhagen: the central pool filled with water from the bay of the capital houses the original Little Mermaid, moved here for the whole duration of the event. The building is a single structure in steel which folds to form a double spiral which features both an internal pedestrian path for the visitors of the museum, and a bicycle path with only two curves which leads up to the roof. The pavilion promotes the bicycle as symbol of contemporary life and urban sustainability: a thousand bicycles will be made available to the visitors, for the exploration of the Expo area. To separate the flows between cyclists and pedestrians, artist Jeppe Hein has designed a continuous bench in white steel especially for the exhibition, which connects interior and exterior. Many of the 250 pavilions of the Expo are inspired by local traditions and by a mixture between East and West. The project of EMBT Architects features a rediscovery of a traditional form of Spanish craftsmanship in the exhibition park of the Shanghai Expo: wickerwork baskets have been transformed into a modern facade material. The pavilion is structured in a complex and organic geometric form; the material, covered by a special waterproofing treatment, emphasizes its naturalness. The Catalan firm Pont de Querós, specialized in the use of vegetal fibres and the design of products in this material, has contributed from an early stage to the realization, between Spain and Germany, of various prototypes. Curved and covered with rush, they have been fixed, like the scales of an artificial skin in shot colours, to a solid steel structure which also serves as sunscreen to optimize the comfort in the spaces inside the pavilion.
The Mexican pavilion is the work of the SLOT firm: the building is defined by a sloping surface (a “talud”, element of the pre-Colombian architectural tradition) which transforms the square in a public area for relaxation and a privileged point of observation. The project aims to create a green central space which bears witness to the designers’ concern for town planning standards, which have by now been lowered in the contemporary city, suggesting the creation of green areas rather than icon-buildings. The distinctive elements of the pavilions are the 135 kites (in Nahatl dialect, “papalotes” which literally means butterflies) in recycled plastic, suspended at several metres of height; they are, at the same time, landmarks of the national presence and means of controlling the climate and shading the park area below. New media, interactivity and the transitory character of the buildings: these topics form a red thread which is particularly prolific in this Chinese edition of the Universal Exposition. The firm Buchner-Bründler architects, in collaboration with Element GmbH, is responsible for the design of the Swiss pavilion, a hybrid between nature and technology where innovation and sustainability are merged. The pavilion roof can be reached by ski-lift, representation of the peculiar tourism of the Alpine valleys; the ascent makes it possible to get away from urban stress, and reach a quiet green area.
The facade consists of a metal net onto which 11,000 solar cells are fixed in a casual arrangement; every element contains an energy source, an accumulator and a LED diode. The production of energy is made visible and understandable to the visitors by luminous flashes triggered by the conditions on the outside of the pavilion, such as natural light, wind or energy sources of an electromagnetic type, as mobile phones and cameras. When the Expo is finished, the facade will be disassembled and each solar cell recycled as a gadget, symbol of innovation and sustainability of the Alpine country. The design of the pavilion of the Arab Emirates, designed by Foster and Partners, is inspired by the topography of the sand dunes of the Middle Eastern deserts. While the southern part of the building vaunts a closed arrangement, modelled by the dominant winds, the northern facade is porous, to allow daylight to enter the pavilion in a controlled manner.
The complex structure is built around a three-dimensional grid in flat stainless steel panels, joined by adjustable nodes: this technology makes the disassembly of the whole building, and its installation elsewhere at the end of the event, quick and rapid. The Italian presence in the park of the Expo 2010 Shanghai is distinguished by the technological innovations and the sustainable approach to the construction themes, starting with the monolithic national pavilion, the work of the Imbrighi firm.
One of the most widely used materials in architecture and building in recent decades has here been given new life thanks to innovative applications; a concrete which, thanks to a completely new combination of special resins and optical fibres which makes it possible to build panels that are solid and insulating, but at the same allow light to filter inside the spaces. The prioritizing of the “ecological” aspect of the construction product is manifest in the projects which are part of the “Sino-Italian Cooperation Programme for Environmental Protection”, launched by the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Italian Territory and Ocean together with its Chinese equivalent institutions. The B3-2 pavilion by Studio Archea for the UBPA - or Urban Best Practices Area - features a second skin in 100% recyclable textile. An innovative concept of shell which, thanks to its components - an elastomer layer interposed between a frame in extruded aluminium profile and a textile membrane in fibre glass coated with silicon – on the one side protects the transparent surfaces from the sun, forming an effective ventilated facade, and on the other gives the surface a new material consistency, allowing a three-dimensional modelling of openings and doors. The aggregate of the adjacent B2 and C1 pavilions by Mario Occhiuto Architectures is inspired by a desire to recover and upgrade the existing industrial pavilions while maintaining the structure and adapting it to new functions through the creation of a facing which accentuates its identity: large tiles in recomposed decorated terracotta, a material which recovers the thousand-years old tradition of the ancient Roman coccio pesto or crushed earthenware. Becoming an essential part of the wall layers, the ventilated wall is superimposed on the existing structure, improving its thermal performance and reducing direct sunrays.
