SCHOTT solutions no. 1/2010 > EXPO 2010

Living better – A City in Balance

”balancity” – the largest pavilion that Germany has ever had built for an EXPO – sets architectural and design standards with its balanced approach.

Bernd Müller

The visitor finds himself surrounded by a sea of city noises. A moving walkway takes him into the depths of a tunnel illuminated by blue light. Thousands of tiny lamps blink inside a long glass wall on the right. The pattern is designed to look like a public transportation system. The lamps also spell out the word ”balancity” in Chinese characters.

This tunnel represents the entrance area to the exhibition inside the German Pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai that was designed by Milla & Partner, and it prepares the visitor for the Pavilion’s message: ”balancity” – a term created by combining the words ”Balance” and ”City” that stands for a city that is in balance when it comes to renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition, urbanity and nature, society and its individuals. Balance is also the underlying theme behind the ideas for the German Pavilion and is reflected in both the exhibit from Milla & Partner and the architecture of Schmidhuber + Kaindl. Already from afar, one can see the building sculpture that consists of four main structures that, in themselves, look as if they are about to tip over. In an ensemble, however, these structures become quite stable and symbolize the play between the forces of carrying and burdening, leaning and supporting. At the same time, the entire complex blends in harmoniously with the landscape. The structures appear to float over the top of the terrace area like umbrellas that offer shade and shelter from rain.

Illuminating both rooms proved to be a challenge. Depending on the height of the warehouse and the type of exhibit, the boxes are illuminated in different ways. No light at all was used for 30 of the boxes inside the Depot, while the remaining 60 were equipped with lighting solutions from SCHOTT. These include LED, halogen and discharge lamps in combination with various light emission techniques, like fiber optics, lighting strips and spotlights. In addition to contributing the functional lighting for the boxes and for setting accents, SCHOTT provided special color and effect glasses for use in the building, including the anti-reflective glass Amiran®. Many of these glass and lighting solutions have never been seen before in China.

Ceran® glass-ceramic cooktop panels, on the other hand, are better known in Chinese households. In 2002, a plant that manufactures Ceran® cooktop panels was even built on Chinese soil in Suzhou. Inside the Depot, visitors are given the oppor­tunity to cook a virtual German or Chinese meal on a Ceran® cooktop panel at an interactive station. Although it is not quite as well known, Zerodur® glass-ceramic is just as unique and can be seen and experienced inside the Factory. This material has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to zero. For this reason, it is particularly well-suited for use in the large mirror telescopes common to astronomy. Still other German innovations can be seen inside the factory, for instance receivers for solar thermal power plants and solutions in the area of photovoltaics that are explained by movies, which SCHOTT helped to produce, that are shown at the interactive scanner stations.

Further examples: the architects created a conference table that is equipped with a beamer for the VIP area located at the center of ”balancity”. An anti-reflective pane of glass that can be used as a projection surface was developed together with SCHOTT. The toilets in the VIP area are made of shimmering black glass. Everything is completely black, even the water faucets. At the end of their tour, visitors can look forward to seeing a spectacular show inside the ”Energy Source”. A huge pendulum that features a ball three meters in diameter swings from the ceiling. The audience can set the pendulum in motion by making noise. The energy that this creates reflects off of the walls and ceiling to produce an exciting light choreography. Images, colors and shapes – impulses from Germany that all relate to the theme of the EXPO, ”Better City, Better Life”, are shown on the ball that features 400,000 LEDs. This truly fascinating expe­rience finally marks the end of the tour of the German ­Pavilion. The Federal Republic of Germany’s participation in the EXPO 2010, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, was organized by Koelnmesse Inter­national as the execution company, and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Pavillon Shanghai GbR (ARGE), a partner-ship formed by Schmidhuber + Kaindl GmbH from Munich ­(Architecture and General Planning), Milla & Partner GmbH from Stuttgart (Exhibition and Media Design), as well as Nüssli (Germany) from Roth (Execution and Project Management), the company that was responsible for realizing it.