Expo Shanghai 2010 - UK Pavilion -

Padiglione Inglese 2010: Semi costruiscono cattedrali.

Il padiglione inglese all'Expo 2010 di Shanghai conserva la stessa etica generativa per cui nel 1851 era stato costruito in Crystal Palace, cioè persegue il tentativo di mostrare visivamente la creatività e l'innovatività di questa nazione.

Disegnato dall'architetto Thomas Heaterwick, il Padiglione Inglese, soprannominato Seed Cathedral (Cattedrale del seme), si configura come un edificio alto sei piani e formato da 60000 "coni retinici trasparenti", aste trasparenti di oltre sette metri di lunghezza che si lasciano muovere dal vento.

Durante il giorno ogni asta si comporta come una fibra ottica portando all'interno la luce, contribuendo a creare uno spazio alquanto ispirante e contemplativo.

La notte, invece, la luce che parte dall'interno del padiglione si incanala fino a raggiungere l'apice esterno di ogni asta, illuminandolo esternamente.

L'altro apparato importante, a cui questo padiglione deve il nome, è l'aspetto ecologico conservativo. Infatti grazie alla collaborazione con la Kew Millennium Seed Bank, la più grande collezione mondiale di semi, sono stati inseriti più di 10000 semi nei punti terminali interni delle aste trasparenti, così da mostrare a tutti i visitatori i differenti semi che contribuiscono alla conservazione naturale ed ecosistemica globale del pianeta in tutti le sue necessità, da quelle mediche a quelle energetiche.

Perchè per fare un albero, ci vuole il seme.

testo: grape

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Uk Pavilion: Between the Organic and the Space Age.

Uk Pavilion is a visual demonstration of the UK as a creative and innovative nation;

exactly as Crystal Palace was in the very first Expo in London in 1851.

Designed by one of the UK’s leading creative talents, Thomas Heatherwick, the Pavilion is designed as a gift to China. The centrepiece of the UK pavilion is a six storey high object, known as the Seed Cathedral, 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 fibre-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 Seed Cathedral sits on a landscape looking like paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site signifying the UKs gift to China.

Inside the Seed Cathedral is a unique visual representation of the UK’s leading role in conservation worldwide –Kew Millennium Seed Bank partnership – the largest collection of wild plant seeds in the world. By encasing tens of thousands of seeds into the ends of the transparent rods, you will be able to view examples of seeds of plant species that contribute to national and global conservation programmes. There is enormous potential for innovation and discovery held in the rich biodiversity of seeds: from new medicines and materials to construction techniques, communication systems and sustainable energy.

text by ukshanghaiexpo.com

EMBT - Santa Caterina Market

Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue: Santa Caterina Market - Barcelona.

Ciutat Vella, unlike other quarters of

Barcelona, is a city in itself… this city within a city seems to be the main feature of historical centers starting from this point everything gets complicated.

The present planning is unable to manage the complexity of the situation. and looking for short-term results, has unbearably limited the rules of the game.

To repeat. To make it again. The project must not exsist in a particular moment in time, but in inhabiting it.

Our projects starts by criticising the actual planning and proposes a model that allows for adaption to the area's complexity.

Planning rules which contemplate something more than the street width and the building height.

A first scheme which allows for the development of the city complexity and which complies with the commitments undertaken.

We propose a model in which it is not so easy to distinguish between rehabilitation and new construction.

Where the squares, the constant drawing of widenings overflying the street as the only urban mechanism.

The shopping points decrease, rationalizing the access and services systems.

Creating public space, and residential density.

We move the shopping area to Avenida Cambó, reducing its section, opening the old Market construction to the heart of Santa Caterina quarter.

THANK YOU TO EMBT