Home » Supplement » Germany
Balance the key to urban designs
By Yang Jian |
November 9, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SIEMENS, Beck's - "Made in Germany" has long been a reliable label in the world market.
Next year, a huge made-in-Germany "product" will stand along the Huangpu River in Shanghai to showcase the high-quality, innovative society that has led to these trusted brands.
The Germany Pavilion will also showcase urban life and how German design and products can help solve urbanization problems.
The 6,000-square-meter pavilion for World Expo is considered an important project for Germany and in terms of scale, design and effort it is the largest commitment the country has made in its long Expo history.
It will spend 30 million euros (US$43.09 million) on the project and expects to host around 9 million local and international visitors.
On July 8, the pavilion finished its steel structure with wine glasses being smashed against its steel structure to wish the pavilion good luck for the Expo - a German custom that is believed to bring good luck to all those who enter the pavilion during the 2010 event.
Cities can be great places to live, as long as there's balance in diversity instead of uniformity and monotony. It's all about equilibrium and harmony. That's the idea of "Balancity," the Germany Pavilion for the Expo.
The pavilion is composed of four exhibition structures that appear to hover. They create a roof protecting visitors from the weather as they wander through the landscape. Between them emerge interplays of interior and exterior spaces, of light and shadow, of closeness and vastness.
The structures stand as symbols for the interplay between carrying and being carried, between leaning on and supporting. Each individual structure, on its own, is in a precarious state of balance. It is only in the context of other structures that a stable balance is found. This is the concept behind the name of the pavilion.
"We want to offer visitors, most of whom will be Chinese, an appealing, experience-oriented concept," said Dietmar Schmitz, Germany's Expo commissioner general. "Through Balancity we will be able to show that cities can be good places to live if there is balanced diversity rather than uniformity and monotony."
The centerpiece of the pavilion is a cone-shaped structure that can accommodate 750 visitors spread out along a spiral-shaped gallery. In the center of the cone is a 1-ton metal sphere, 3 meters in diameter and covered with 30,000 LEDs displaying a kaleidoscope of images during a five-minute show.
To begin the show, spectators must shout and move, according to the directions of virtual guides. The image display will respond to movement and sound. The more active people are, the more energy they create, the more the sphere will react.
"Each individual will help generate the city's energy," the German organizers said. "The performance will show visitors to the German pavilion that, together they can make things happen."
The journey through "Balancity" would start at the terraced landscape on the ground level.
Like a labyrinth, the path winds toward the pavilion entrance, as a variety of tunnels, squares and courtyards emerge.
Next year, a huge made-in-Germany "product" will stand along the Huangpu River in Shanghai to showcase the high-quality, innovative society that has led to these trusted brands.
The Germany Pavilion will also showcase urban life and how German design and products can help solve urbanization problems.
The 6,000-square-meter pavilion for World Expo is considered an important project for Germany and in terms of scale, design and effort it is the largest commitment the country has made in its long Expo history.
It will spend 30 million euros (US$43.09 million) on the project and expects to host around 9 million local and international visitors.
On July 8, the pavilion finished its steel structure with wine glasses being smashed against its steel structure to wish the pavilion good luck for the Expo - a German custom that is believed to bring good luck to all those who enter the pavilion during the 2010 event.
Cities can be great places to live, as long as there's balance in diversity instead of uniformity and monotony. It's all about equilibrium and harmony. That's the idea of "Balancity," the Germany Pavilion for the Expo.
The pavilion is composed of four exhibition structures that appear to hover. They create a roof protecting visitors from the weather as they wander through the landscape. Between them emerge interplays of interior and exterior spaces, of light and shadow, of closeness and vastness.
The structures stand as symbols for the interplay between carrying and being carried, between leaning on and supporting. Each individual structure, on its own, is in a precarious state of balance. It is only in the context of other structures that a stable balance is found. This is the concept behind the name of the pavilion.
"We want to offer visitors, most of whom will be Chinese, an appealing, experience-oriented concept," said Dietmar Schmitz, Germany's Expo commissioner general. "Through Balancity we will be able to show that cities can be good places to live if there is balanced diversity rather than uniformity and monotony."
The centerpiece of the pavilion is a cone-shaped structure that can accommodate 750 visitors spread out along a spiral-shaped gallery. In the center of the cone is a 1-ton metal sphere, 3 meters in diameter and covered with 30,000 LEDs displaying a kaleidoscope of images during a five-minute show.
To begin the show, spectators must shout and move, according to the directions of virtual guides. The image display will respond to movement and sound. The more active people are, the more energy they create, the more the sphere will react.
"Each individual will help generate the city's energy," the German organizers said. "The performance will show visitors to the German pavilion that, together they can make things happen."
The journey through "Balancity" would start at the terraced landscape on the ground level.
Like a labyrinth, the path winds toward the pavilion entrance, as a variety of tunnels, squares and courtyards emerge.
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