5. September - October 2010

ARCHITECTURE
The pavilion stretches the mind on what the
international style of 2010 might be. Conceptualized
as ‘Balancity’ it appears to describe the form of the
building with four visually out-of-balance volumes
that combine to create a single, unified composition.
Balance could just as easily refer to as the compromised
solutions that this pavilion and many others offer
in representing their official cultures. An impossibly
balanced 6,000-square-meter building may draw
architecture buffs, but most visitors to the German
pavilion perhaps want to see castles and a taste of
Germany. Walking through the twisting inner portion
of the building, visitors stroll past views of picturesque
city views and do take pictures of castles with a live
princess. After completing this nostalgic circuit, one
makes their way inside, through an exhibition collection
with the latest German innovations, from urban design
to shoe design. One hopes they take away some new
ideas of German design prowess. But more likely they
will take away a beer insignia from the gift shop.
With the Spainish Pavilion, architect Benedetta
Tagliabue of EMBT (an architect who has been to and
loves Nepal) has created pure drama in the architectural
form. From a first glimpse of the building’s snakelike,
basket-covered form to the climactic view of a
6.5-meter-tall animated sculpture of a baby, are few of
the theatrical events for visitors. The façade made out
of over 8,000 wicker panels is woven by craftsmen in
Shandong Province and explores the experimentation
with organic materials to dress the surface. It is said
that the workers stripped and treated willow stems
to produce a range of panel colors, and arranged the
colours to form Chinese characters, which bring a
tiger-skin pattern to an already fierce façade. A circular
plaza marks the entrance to the building and splits it
into a wing of exhibition space and a wing with offices
and a tapas restaurant. From the plaza, visitors funnel
in, making the entrance not only dramatic but also a
bit scary with so many people crowded together. They
arrive at a long cave-like tunnel, whose rounded, rough
walls are used as giant projection screens. Here, bones
hang from the ceiling and a flamenco dancer jumps to
life from a supposed slumber on the floor stage. Then
visitors move into a high-ceilinged room sliced by five
long, thin video screens and enclosed by dark walls
finished with what appears to be a cross between lace
and lava. Finally the route opens into a bright, open
space dominated by the giant baby perhaps signifying
the curiosity and simplicity of a child to the world around
and more wicker panels.
Free form – Free thinking
World Expos have long served as an experimental
platform for architectural and urban innovation.
At the exhaustive Shanghai World Expo 2010,
organized around the relevant theme of Better
City, Better Life - urban futurism stands at centrestage.
The Expo is recorded as the world's largest
and costliest fair ever held, and only time will
reveal its ultimate impact on how we make and
manage cities.
After three decades of spectacular growth, China
passed Japan in the second quarter this year
to become the world’s second-largest economy
behind the United States paving its way into the
free market. The recognition comes for China this
year with the staging of the World Expo, when
Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at
about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly
below China’s $1.33 trillion.
The competition in the free world market also
seems to have opened the minds of the Chinese
into some free form and international events such
as the staging of the World Expo 2010. Just when
we Nepalese are grappling with political blindness
and power cuts, it surely comes as a contrast to
have neighbours – from whom we could well learn
from, and worth a visit to attend this once in a
lifetime event.
Perhaps the ending message could be that - if one
clings on to the past – you don’t live the present,
and if one only dreams of the future – you may
miss the present. China seems to be doing it all
this century.
GERMAN CREDITS
Overall responsibility: German Federal Ministry of Economics and
Technology
Organisation and Operation: Koelnmesse International GmbH
Architecture: Schmidhuber + Kaindl GmbH, Munich
Exhibition: Milla und Partner GmbH, Stuttgart
Execution: Nüssli (Deutschland) GmbH, Roth
Photo Copyright : © Architecture Schmidhuber + Kaindl / Exhibition
Milla + Partner / Photo: Andreas Keller
September-October 2010
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