Yanina Guerzovich

Since the 1851 Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace, World Expositions have been a platform to display historical experience and the best global practices. They foster the exchange of innovative ideas that seek to tackle the problems that face mankind in the future. In this spirit, the 2010 World Expo is taking place in Shanghai. Its theme is “Better City, Better Life.” As 55% of the world population lives in cities, the Expo’s theme promoting sustainable urban development reflects a central policy-making concern of the international community.

Source: modified official map from http:/en.expo2010.cn

Expo 2010 is the largest Expo ever seen. More than 200 countries and international organizations are presenting their creative experience. Any one of the 70 million visitors expected to attend the Expo is likely to be overwhelmed by the possibilities. I visited Shanghai Expo a few weeks ago. In this article, I highlight two exhibits: the UK pavilion and the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA). These two displays stand out as they provide valuable blueprints for the future of cities and urban lifestyle. They also raise the bar for Milan Expo 2015.

UK Pavilion at Expo 2010: The dandelion experience

Seed Cathedral, Heatherwick Studio, image Yanina Guerzovich

The main attractions of the Expo are the countries’ pavilions where participants often market their histories and culture, and provide entertainment for visitors. While interesting for most, these pavilions often lack in terms of presenting remarkable innovations for the future of cities. The UK pavilion designed by Heatherwick Studio, however, is a sticking exception. It focuses on the relationship between cities and nature, linking the theme to the countries’ experience through good design. Its “Seed Cathedral” lives up to the hype as one of Shanghai Expo’s star attractions.

Using local experience and good design to provide a glimpse of the global future. Heatherwick Studio’s idea was to explore the relationship between nature and cities, designing a pavilion whose architecture was a direct manifestation of their exhibition. Keeping in mind the UK’s history on public and botanical parks, the designers teamed up with the Kew Gardens’ Millennium Seed Bank. The Seed Bank’s mission is to collect the world species’ seeds. The connections between nature and the built environment, and local and global contexts, are visually captured in an architectural icon and its surroundings.

Seed Cathedral, Expo 2010, Shanghai , image Yanina Guerzovich

The UK pavilion stands out from afar. As one approaches the European pavilions’ zone, a mass of radiating cilia can be seen from all angles. Optic “hairs” that gently swing with the wind blend with the Shanghai sky without heavy boundaries. From a distance, the vision of the Seed Cathedral instills a feeling of transparency and movement, offering a quick glimpse of what lies ahead inside the showcase, tempting visitors to venture in. In this way, the designers accomplished the difficult task of standing out among the numerous competitors that vie for visitors’ attention and also managed to convey the experience from a distance.

The Seed Cathedral is an impressive structure with much more than an inspiring botanical collection. The structure is made up of 7.5 meters long slender transparent fiber optic rods embedded with seeds at their tips on one end. Its 60,000 filaments create fascinating effects as they shape the exterior and interior of the centerpiece. During the day, the rods draw daylight inwards illuminating the interior. Each “hair” showcases a jewel – an illuminated seed that visitors like me could touch. At night the light sources inside each bar glows the pavilion, creating a luminous and motional atmosphere within. It gave me a sense of calm and introspection despite the visitors walking around.

Seed Cathedral, Heatherwick Studio, image ©Heatherwick Studio

The sensations continued as I walked out of the beautiful and enlightening seed dome. After a long day at the Expo I was tired, much as I would have been after a day’s work in a big city like Milan or Buenos Aires. The Cathedral is surrounded by 6,000 m2 of ground, landscaped in multiple layers to enhance the centerpiece of the exhibition. I took off my shoes and rested my feet over a special artificial grass. The sensation of unwrapped paper blooming under me, the site of the visitors wondering around, and the exquisite dome, were soothing. I was able to proceed to the final open venue, which sheltered more installations on the future of cities.

A visitor-friendly pavilion. Although good design should be self-explanatory, the design of several pavilions made it hard to understand the country’s approach to urban innovation. They were not able to reach beyond the eye-catching skins of the structures. Fancy screens and projections alone do not necessarily provide information that is interesting and comprehensible. Visitors are left to their own devises to sort through things in technology-driven atmospheres. The UK exhibit solves this problem with just a few elements on site and by offering a guided tour in Chinese, and it’s important to note that even though I do not understand the language, I did not get lost in translation. As I walked up and around the open corridor towards the Cathedral I was able to get a taste of their forward-thinking shown with creative techniques. In the UK pavilion, technology was used to enhance rather than to drive content.

Seed Cathedral, Heatherwick Studio, image ©Heatherwick Studio

A pavilion whose aim goes full circle. As a temporary and innovative structure the UK pavilion conveys a complete message that is relevant to the theme of the Expo. In its effort to bring the best of UK cities to the world, the designers’ vision took advantage of know-how indigenous to their country’s experience, as they brought a message about the role of nature in the city. They also went several steps further because a large part of the UK pavilion was built using local materials, which considerably reduced unnecessary CO2 emissions caused by transportation to and from the Expo. The Seed Cathedral has a recycling plan suited for the local-global theme of the event as well: just as dandelion seeds are blown away and dispersed by the breeze in nature, the cathedral’s seeds will be distributed to hundreds of schools in China and the UK, another relevant legacy of the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Best practices overview
World Expos provide many possibilities for host countries and cities as well placing them in a privileged position to promote themselves. But, they can also take advantage of the occasion to invest in sustainable urban development in ways that improve the lives of local residents in the long-term. Shanghai Expo’s theme opened a window to link both opportunities through the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA).

Urban Best Practices Area, Expo 2010, Shanghai, image Yanina Guerzovich

UBPA is an area of the city redesigned to fit the theme that promises an enduring legacy for Shanghai. The UPBA is located in Section E of Puxi and has a land area of 15.12 ha which is divided in two parts and joined by a walking bridge. The exhibition includes real and potential scenes of cities in all areas of city management classified into categories such as Liveable City, Sustainable Urbanization and Protection & Utilization of the Historical Heritages. While this zone is not as popular among visitors – less than 10% make it there – it provides an exciting glimpse into the ways in which a city’s past can become the basis for a more sustainable urban future.

Source: KimonBerlin at http:/www.flickr.com

At the UBPA there are visible traces of industrial heritage although industries and workers have been relocated to give way to a more sustainable future for the city, standing out among them is the Harmony Tower, a chimney of the 110-year-old Nanshi Power Plant. The Nanshi plant used to be a major source of pollution. Today, thanks to the Expo, the tower has been transformed. It has become a venue for showcasing clean energy use. From miles away, I could see real-time meteorological data, at night its top changes colour according to the weather conditions. This landmark gives an attractive feeling to the area where the value of the past merges with a new environment. The tower together with other cases like the Joint Case Pavilion at the UBPA are examples of the way old structures can be reused and integrated to attain new functions and better practices.

Urban Best Practice Area, Expo 2010, Shanghai, image Yanina Guerzovich

The Hamburg Home – Zero Gas Emission is another interesting example of best practices in urban development that will become part of the Expo’s legacy for Shanghai. The project was commissioned by the city of Hamburg, Germany to bring to China their experience based on its “HafenCity” project. In the original project old buildings on the waterfront of the River Elbe are being retrofitted into modern and top-technology environmentally friendly structures for residential and commercial use.

Urban Best Practice Area, Expo 2010, Shanghai, image Yanina Guerzovich

In the Shanghai version a key theme, Home of Hidden Energies, stands out thanks to the exterior design of the building. Much as looking at the Seed Cathedral, looking at the red branch-like elements “growing” from the structure, I was able to anticipate what lay ahead inside the “Tree of good wishes”. As I walked in, a three-dimensional tree guided me through the different levels. I learned how energy-saving construction principles took into consideration the climate of Shanghai at the level of the tree’s roots. Simple, sometimes narrow, information conveyed how the designers optimized the architecture and used envelope and advanced energy-related technology to achieve sustainability. As I walked up the trunk and branches of the tree, I discovered other sources of Hamburg’s energy. The city appeared as an integrative and economically powerful model. The “tree of good wishes” communicates the desires and energies that can shape the environment creatively and sustainably towards a better city and life. Visitors to the Shanghai Expo can learn about Hamburg’s forceful experience with energy-saving development blended with history. For the citizens of Shanghai, these constructions will have ongoing uses after the Expo, they will also become an important reference for the development of sustainable construction in their own city.

Shanghai is a vast and fast growing city full of dissimilarities. It is the proud home of other amazing buildings such as the World Financial Centre designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. This building aims to show the city’s potential and growth. But the surrounding environment is highly dense and parks are scarce. In contrast, the UBPA fits the Expo’s theme making a more down to earth use of the urban and interior space. In this spirit, the areas’ enlarged transportation system, which includes new railways, ground and waterbuses, and ferries, provides a sustainable alternative for the city. Green areas and open spaces with the Huangpu River as a background increase the quality of this site. The UBPA promotes another way to live Shanghai in the future. It is an inspirational attempt that seeks balance and prosperous city life.

World Financial Centre, Shanghai, image Yanina Guerzovich

Looking towards Milan 2015. The Chinese Government’s motto for the Expo 2010 was “Keeping in mind the next 60 years’ development while preparing for the six months’ Exposition.” Even though the experience of past events reveals that real transformation requires time, grand events like Expo give cities and countries the possibility to gain global visibility and strengthen urban development but also to plan a sustainable future. The experience and the highlights of the 2010 Expo, provide many building blocks for the Milan Expo 2015 and the chance to reflect on the legacies it will leave to the city and to the world.