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The Pudong Expo Area
on a second day we gave it a try, with high hopes to wait in lines as little as possible and to see as much as possible... Discussing how much time we are actually ready to wait for a single pavillion, while some of them really have queues of 3h waiting time ( China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Saudi Arabia pavillion ...), Emi was approached by a woman, asking her if she could pose for her, cause she's looking for most fashionably dressed visitors of the Expo for some chinese fashion magazine. So, we have one fasionable person with us! =)
This side of the river is much more crowded than the Puxi site and here's where the real crowds are.
UK Pavillion
Estimated waiting time: 3 units of Forever
Time waited: 1h 25min and ...it rained in UK 😉
The one we all really really wanted to see. So no questions asked, we joined the queue with positive thoughts. Half the way to the covered waiting area... it started to rain. So we did that as well... waiting in a huge queue with many Chinese around us, shouting, munching on different things,
some trying to just get ahead of everyone infront of them (?!?you're in a fully packed queue?!?) But coming inside...is rewarding cause the pavillion is nothing we've ever seen. Elegant, minimalistic, blending with environment and creating a special mini landscape. On the photos and seen on site...it still looks like a rendered image.
The Seed Cathedral was designed by Heatherwick Studio in collaboration with the Millennium Seed Bank. The structure’s facade is composed of 60,000 acrylic rods that are filled with seeds from around the world, wich are provided by Kunming Institute of Botany. Rods act as fiber optic sunlight transport systems that draw light into the structure during the day. At night, the inside lights up and a soft glow transmits through the rods to the exterior. When we entered, the light outside wasn't that strong, so the inside was quite dark.
Luxembourg Pavillion
estimated waiting time: 40 min
time waited: none ...entered trough the restaurant
We actually entered the pavillion just because of its restaurant that one of us saw trough the window while passing by. After the lunch and a chat with the neighbouring table of older dutch ladies, who told us
why the dutch Happy Street pavillion has been closed for the day (the dutcs princess visiting), we also sneaked to the pavillion that was actually quite cool all clad in flowers and rusted iron.
Slovenia Pavillion
estimated waiting time: nothing special
time waited: priority passing of the line 😉
was a positive surprise, considering the fact that I really didn't like what I saw before coming here. The interior of the pavillion was saved by Boris Podrecca and we actually have the setting and themes that makes the visitors want to stop and see and even read about it and not just run trough and get stamps in their Expo Passport. As soon as we joined the queue ( yes, there was a queue infront of the Slovenia pavillion!), within a minute a guy who was at the door realised that his mothertoungue was being spoken nearby and he was soooo glad to see us! "ooo, a ve ste pa naše? Ja pejte no naprej!" ...and he gave us a warm welcome, passing us trought the gates and giving us each a present, a booklet by our superstar phylosopher Slavoj Zizek (who is in these days
attending the Expo himself and giving a lecture at Shanghai university). After that, he called the manager of the pavillion and she came to greet us and give us a tour of the exhibition inside. That's the protocol when people from motherland visit! Very, very nice!
Norway Pavillion
estimated waiting time: nothing special
time waited: hardly 10 min
From outside it's a wooden structure resembling a landscape of 15 trees. You enter from a humid warm outside world trough the cool mist into a beautiful clean ambient with a strong environmental emphasis. Large space that is created among these trees is representing norwegian different landscapes: the coast, the forrest, the fjords and the arctic in visual, tactile, auditory and physical areas.
A tree structure has its own trunk and roots, and four branches constructed of laminated timber and is covered with a canopy made of fabric. The roots help to define each of the four zones and are perforated with specific patterns reflecting each type of terrain. The canopy is made of a four-point sail membrane construction that acts as a diffuser during the day and allows natural daylight to filter into the interior space. All
secondary structure and exhibition surface areas are constructed of a new Chinese-developed sustainable material - glue-laminated bamboo (Gluebam). Each tree is an independently functioning structure and can and will be put apart after the expo and eventually become a part of some other new landscape. Rainwater colection from the roof of the trees is collected nd purified within a part of the pavillion where visitors can taste the newly purified water.
After visiting the swedish pavillion that followed...we returned to have dinner in the Norway pavillion in a restaurant of norwegian seafood. It was already a night time scenery of the pavillion, all of the tree roofs being illuminated, an aurora effect created on some of them and a special music being played. The food was amazing! We all had different kind of fish, starting with raw salmon, prepared in 5 different ways. The meat just melted in our mouth, the vine to go with it was great, the service as well, the colours, the sounds, the smell and the ambient of the pavillion ...it was all just so perfect it really felt something like Cristmas!
Sweden Pavillion
estimated waiting time: 40 min
time waited: none
Here we simply had luck! Dragging myself behind with snailspeed that I get with my photo camera I just wanted to take shots of it from the outside and to get the structure. So as I started to ask the swedish guy that handled the queue wetrer it's a wooden structure and so on... just some voice behind me strted to interfere and joke a bit: 'yea...isn't it a lovely facade! how amazing!...hey would you like to see it from within??' ...that made me turn aroun instantly... a very handsome guy with an invitation...'But I have friends...two friends' _'that's not my problem anymore...' I managed to call them and tell them to follow us quickly and pass into the VIP section of the store at the exit. From there...he dissappeared as quickly as he appeared but we were inside. Thank you, whoever you are!
"Innovation is really a joint venture. Playing together - that's the spirit of innovation!"...the pavillion promotes many swedish inventions trough time and emphasizes the concept of recycling and reuse.
Denmark Pavillion
estimated waiting time: nothing special
time waited: 5 min
The pavillion is an elegantly sloping circular loop that is
ending with a rooftop garden that holds 300 bicycles that give visitors a chance to experience Denmark’s favorite mode of transportation. The building is constructed from white painted steel, which reflects head to keep the interior cool throughout Shanghai’s summer. Bike paths are paved throughout the structure using a light blue surfacing texture that is also featured on Danish cycle paths.The pavilion is wrapped with a punctured facade that allows daylight to filter in, and when the sun sets the exterior ignites with light as pedestrians and cyclists zip through the interior spaces. The pavillion promotes the use of pedal power and walking as sustainable methods of transportation. After the Expo will end the pavillion would be moved and relocated to act as a hub for Shanghai’s new fleet of city bikes.
Finland Pavillion
estimated waiting time: none... it was late in the evening already
time waited: walked right in
This building is cool. Big and round, elyptically shaped...and when you come in...it's empty! Ha! A cool landscape that makes you look up to the sky and gives you an impression of an airy mystical land. Later you are taken up inside the walls of
the pavillion to their design exhibit area and as elsewhere...trough the shop again. What surprised me was the material of the facade which are recycled paper shingles that can easily be taken apart and reassembled elsewhere. The mind behind this airy landscape is Teemu Kurkela.
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Petra
non-member comment
Slovenia wtf
Kva paj zej to Slovenia?!