Greetings! Finally I’m back to the posting board after a short hiatus which took me to Shanghai, China, where I had the privilege of visiting the EXPO.
Navigating the gargantuan site was a physical challenge, let alone braving the haze, some occasional rain and a massive crowd rivaling the World Cup, but experiencing the pavilions first-hand was an absolute reward. One of the ‘hot spots’ I managed to catch was the UK pavilion by Thomas Heatherwick , which is clearly a favorite, so check out my snap-happy trek across the Seed Cathedral:
- UK Pavilion by Thomas Heatherwick -
The UK pavilion is a six-story high object formed from 60,000 slender transparent rods, which extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of the 7.5m long rods act like fiber-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 allow the whole structure to glow. The pavilion sits on a landscape resembling paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site.
The undulation created by the series of rods inside the ‘cathedral’
close-up of the embedded seeds in each rod
the pavilion seems to float on the reflective pool
underneath the ‘wrapping paper’ is a series of walkways, and one of them consists of a continuous ‘fissure’ along the side of the wall containing plant life.
Visitors who gained access into the pavilion were eventually rewarded with rest on the faceted landscape.
The cathedral on a cloudy night
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planting walls