The Spain Pavilion, aka ‘The Basket’, is next on my list of favorites after Heatherwick’s cathedral and BIG’s bike haven. Designed by Spanish architect, Benedetta Tagliabue of EMBT (Enrique Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue), the key design element is its dramatic envelope which is cladded in a sea of undulating wicker panels in tones of beige, brown and black, all woven by craftsmen in China’s Shandong Province.
Thankfully, the line was a breeze, and it took me a mere half hour to enter the bowels of the ‘Basket’. Check out a few of my snapshots below:
close-up of the wicker (rattan) panels
After a feast of moving images introducing Spain and babies, we are greeted by the giant, perpetually smiling ‘bebe’ fondly named Small Miguelin. I was rather disappointed by the interior’s high-intensity artificial lights which seemed to take away the light-filtering quality of the wicker.
I was actually hoping for a more dramatic setting shown on the image below. (image source: Shanghai Expo 2010)
view of the entire pavilion (image source: EMBT)
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