Renewing the design for the UK pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, British designer Thomas Heatherwick teaming up with Mace, the consultancy and construction company, has come up with a new six-storey pavilion under the theme being ‘Better City, Better Life’ that will provide a dramatic demonstration of creativity and innovation in the UK. Penetrated by 60,000 (7.5 meter long) transparent rods, the pavilion acts as fiber optic filaments and elucidates the interior of the pavilion with natural light in the day time, while on the other hand, the rods transfers the light from the inside to the exterior to glow the structure through the night. Housing the largest collection of wild plant seeds in the world, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank partnership, which will be demonstrate in the end of the transparent rods, the pavilion also offers space for public events and visitors in the surrounding faceted landscape. Here is how the designer, Thomas Heatherwick, envisions the pavilion:
The Expo in Shanghai will be an amazing event; around two hundred countries competing for the attention of seventy million visitors. Our task is to make the UK pavilion stand out. We decided to do this by making one extraordinary object; not recognizable in conventional terms, set in a calm open site. Each visitor will be able to explore both in their own way. Rather than making a straightforward advert for the UK, we want our pavilion to give each person a more profound understanding of the richness of contemporary UK culture.
Via: Dezeen