Swiss Pavilion Expo 2010 Shanghai
The official Swiss Pavilion Expo 2010 Shanghai at the Expo 2010 covered an area of 4,000 m 2 . The exhibition theme for the 2010 World's Fair was Better City, Better Life . The Swiss Confederation presented itself with its pavilion on the Expo sub-theme rural-urban interaction and called its pavilion Nature's Playground or 自然 乐园 [zìrán lèyuán] (English or Chinese playground of nature). The official opening of the Swiss Pavilion took place on May 1, 2010.
Confirmation of participation, project management, appointment of the general commissioner and costs
On March 29, 2006, the Swiss Federal Council spoke out in favor of the Swiss Confederation taking part in Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
The Swiss Federal Council delegated the project management of the Swiss Pavilion to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs , Presence Switzerland .
At its meeting on April 18, 2007, the Swiss Federal Council had the former Swiss Ambassador in Beijing (1995–1998) for the People's Republic of China , North Korea and Mongolia , Dr. Uli Sigg , appointed General Commissioner of the Swiss Pavilion. Sigg also presided over the jury for the project competition of the Swiss Pavilion for the Expo 2010. The director of the Swiss Pavilion was Manuel Salchli.
The appearance of the Swiss Confederation at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai cost around CHF 25 million. CHF 16 million was borne by the Swiss Confederation, the sponsors contributed with contributions of over CHF 6.5 million. The remaining amount was financed by income from the pavilion's own shop and by renting out the pavilion's own VIP lounge.
Concept and construction of the pavilion
The concept for the pavilion and the thematic exhibition was developed by the working group Buchner Bründler Architects , Basel and element design, Basel. In 2006, the working group emerged as the winner of the two-stage project competition launched by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland with a view to the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The media of the exhibition as well as the cells of the facade were conceived, planned and implemented by iart ag, Basel together with the working group. The Swiss pavilion was built by the Nüssli Group over a period of 15 months . Nüssli employed around 200 - mainly local - workers, built 760 tons of steel, 3,800 m 2 of metal mesh for the 17-meter-high facade and 4,000 plant boxes for the vertical greening of the cylinder, which visitors took the chairlift through on their way to the roof of the pavilion.
Architectural link between town and country
The aim of the appearance of the Swiss Confederation in Shanghai was to embody the symbiosis of city and country in the architecture of the Swiss pavilion in accordance with the motto of the Expo 2010. The Swiss Confederation presented itself in Shanghai with a hybrid structure of technology and nature, which united city and country and showed how these two poles keep each other in balance.
The roof of the Swiss pavilion was covered with real grass and plants. Due to the special climatic conditions in Shanghai, the selection of the plants was an additional challenge. This green roof, together with two load-bearing cylinders, formed the structure of the building.
The roof soffit and the two cylinders inside the pavilion encompassed the urban space. This urban space could be explored by the visitors of the pavilion by means of a ramp system, which was designed as a spiral double helix . The complementary contrast to this was the green, topographically gently undulating roof that was sounded with a music installation by the composer Benedikt Schiefer. The connecting element between the two rooms was a chairlift . In a four-minute drive, it took visitors through the vertically green cylinder out of the heaviness of the city and up into the lightness and tranquility of nature and back again.
Tour in the Swiss pavilion
As soon as they entered the pavilion, visitors could begin their tour of the Swiss pavilion via a continuous three-meter-wide ramp. The passage over the ascending ramp led along the main cylinder. In the course of the ascent, one completely circled it once, which allowed visitors to get a first overview of the building. Using the ten binoculars attached to the edge of the ramp , which offered a three-dimensional view of images of Switzerland, brief texts provided the visitors with information about Switzerland on the subject of urban-rural interaction.
Face to face
The ramp led into the darkened exhibition area inside the main cylinder, where the visitors met the installation face to face . In this installation, visitors were faced with 12 life-size steles with screens, distributed around the room , where some well-known Swiss people reported from their lives in Switzerland. Including Hans-Rudolf Schalcher , Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey , Renzo Blumenthal , Bertrand Piccard and Sergei Aschwanden . The representatives from the four language regions of Switzerland spoke in their respective national language ( German , French , Italian and Romansh ), which was then translated into Chinese or English. Sara Baumann addressed the visitors in sign language . With this installation, the people responsible for the pavilion wanted to focus on people who act sustainably.
The Alps
The 12 protagonists or the 12 steles of the installation face to face stood against the background of a high-resolution, over ten meter high large projection of landscape images from Switzerland. A shortened version of the IMAX film The Alps was shown in a seven-minute endless loop . The film showed the visitors the omnipresence of the mountains in Switzerland, which in addition to their beauty also represent a sometimes harsh and difficult living space for humans. The projection of the Swiss mountains was a popular background subject for visitors' souvenir photos.
Up, over the green meadow and down again with the chairlift
On the further way through the pavilion over the descending ramp, forty more binoculars again gave the visitors three-dimensional views of innovative and sustainable Swiss success stories. Specific solutions from Switzerland on the issues of air quality, water quality, sustainable building and public transport were shown. The descending ramp was inserted in a double helix between the ascending ramp and led the visitors to the station of the 322 m long section of the chairlift in the second cylinder of the pavilion. Via this second cylinder, which was open at the top and covered with greenery, the visitors reached the roof landscape at a speed of 1.2 m / s and after overcoming 17.5 meters in height in the chairlift, which was accompanied by a sound installation in a green alpine meadow with a gentle topography has been transformed with rural sounds. After a four-minute drive, the armchair rejoined the double helix of the cylinder and brought visitors back to the ground floor of the pavilion, the urban space. The pavilion thus brought the basic themes of Expo 2010 of sustainability and quality of life into a coherent cycle.
Back in the urban area, visitors were free to linger a little longer, buy Swiss souvenirs in the pavilion's own shop, visit one of the temporary exhibitions or in the public restaurant, where only Swiss specialties were served, such as a raclette , a risotto or Enjoy Bündnerfleisch with a glass of Swiss wine and a chocolate fondue for dessert.
The chairlift: a challenge for technicians and engineers
The chairlift in the Swiss Pavilion was one of the crowd pullers at Expo 2010. The lift was a prototype . The railway was not entirely immune to technical teething problems. The construction of the suspension and the braking systems of the individual chairs in the tightly curved double helix , where the track had to overcome a gradient of up to 15 ° over a distance of 155.3 m , presented a real challenge for the technicians and engineers. The chairlift had to be temporarily shut down several times so that technicians from Switzerland could, among other things, install special safety brakes.
Interactive intelligent facade
The facade of the pavilion consisted of a coarse-meshed wire rope net, which looked like a huge curtain. The visitors entering the pavilion were able to cross this wire rope network at three points and thus get to the entrance area, the urban space, on the ground floor of the pavilion. 10,000 red round solar cells made of polycarbonate with a diameter of 20 cm were attached to the grid . Each of these cells developed by iart was equipped with an energy generator, a memory and a consumer in the form of a light-emitting diode . The energy generated was made visible in the form of white flashes, which were triggered depending on the pavilion environment, such as the sun and the photo flashes of the visitors, but also by the solar cells themselves flashing at each other. The flashing solar cells made the energetic environmental influences visible and made the visitors aware of their presence. Since each solar cell functioned autonomously, the system was subject to a certain unpredictability, which was expressed in a random and wildly flashing facade. With the help of the energy storage of the individual solar cells, the facade of the pavilion showed a certain activity for some time even after dark. The red solar cells, which let the outline of the Swiss border shimmer through inside, could be purchased as a souvenir after the end of the Expo 2010.
Uniform for the employees of the Swiss Pavilion
A competition between Swiss universities of design was launched for the design of the uniform. The task to be fulfilled was to design a thematic coherent women's and men's top that reflects rural Switzerland and interacts with modern city fashion. The student at the Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design Genève (HEAD), Michelle Schneuwly, emerged with her design Weiss und Edel from 10 proposals submitted . The uniform was complemented with fashionable Swiss accessories such as belts and necklaces with Edelweiss motifs and a Swatch watch.
Awards and nominations
For the facade of the Swiss pavilion, iart was awarded a red dot design award : communication design 2010 and an iF communication design gold award 2010 .
The jury's reasoning for the iF communication design gold award 2010 states:
“Flashing façade is a project that manages to bring an adequate medium into the emotionless and barren concrete world. This example of the Swiss pavilion for the Expo 2010 in Shanghai could go around the world by bringing vivid images to cities thanks to LED technology and digital control options. And thanks to the solar modules that fill up during the day and work at night, this project has also been implemented in an energetically and sustainably effective manner. A wonderful example that will inspire architecture students - the future architects. "
The Swiss pavilion was also nominated for the Swiss Design Prize 2011.
As part of the Expo 2010 Awards from EXHIBITOR magazine, the Swiss pavilion received an award in the Best Activity / Interactive category .
Prominent visitors in the Swiss pavilion
The Swiss pavilion was visited by numerous prominent personalities (selection in order of date of visit):
Federal Councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Federal Councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf attended the topping-out ceremony of the Swiss pavilion on October 22, 2009 as the guest of honor . Over 200 invited guests attended the topping-out ceremony, including a delegation from Switzerland.
Federal President Doris Leuthard
During a trip to China, then Federal President Doris Leuthard visited the Expo 2010 on August 12, 2010. Federal President Doris Leuthard was the guest of honor on the Swiss Pavilion's National Day.
Bertrand Piccard
As part of the celebrations of the National Day on August 12, 2010, Bertrand Piccard visited the Swiss pavilion.
Jacques Rogge
Jacques Rogge , President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), visited the Expo 2010 with a delegation from the IOC on August 29, 2010. On this occasion, he also visited the Swiss pavilion.
Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger
Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger visited Expo 2010 on September 13, 2010 and opened the cycle of events on the subject of cities of the future at ETH Zurich in the Swiss pavilion .
Roger Federer
In October 2010 stayed Roger Federer at the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in China. The Swiss tennis star visited the Expo 2010 on the evening of October 10, 2010. At the end of his tour through the grounds, Federer visited the Swiss pavilion. He greeted the employees, ate a raclette in the pavilion's own restaurant and then enjoyed a ride on the chairlift over the Swiss pavilion. Roger Federer was enthusiastic about the Swiss pavilion:
"The dimensions and dynamics of this expo are fascinating and the Swiss pavilion is certainly one of the top players."
Demolition and reconstruction of the Swiss pavilion in the Zhejiang province in Hangzhou
In accordance with the regulations of the Bureau International des Expositions , the Swiss pavilion was also demolished after the 2010 Expo . The demolition work began one day after the end of the world exhibition, on November 1, 2010.
During the Expo 2010, various interested parties came to the operators of the pavilion and expressed their interest in acquiring the rights to reconstruct the Swiss pavilion. Following Expo 2010, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs sold these rights to Zhejiang Zhongyeh Holding. The company intends to reconstruct the pavilion in the Zhejiang Province in Hangzhou in the next few years and use it in the future as a platform for conferences and seminars and as an exhibition space on topics of sustainable development. The chairlift is to be expanded so that it connects the reconstructed pavilion with the planned Thousand Islands Lake holiday resort .
High number of visitors
The Expo 2010 broke all records in the 159-year history of the world exhibitions: never before has a world exhibition attracted so many visitors and participants on such a large exhibition area. From May 1 to October 31, 2010, over 70 million people visited Expo 2010, where 246 countries and organizations presented themselves on 5.28 square kilometers.
The Swiss pavilion was also able to report high visitor numbers with around 2.8 million visitors. An average of 15,500 people visited the pavilion per day. Queues of several hours were part of the daily picture in front of the entrance to the Swiss pavilion.
The Basel-Geneva-Zurich city pavilion
The cities of Basel , Geneva and Zurich presented themselves on the topic of Better Water - Best Urban Life with their own city pavilion at the Expo 2010 .
literature
- An Overview of the World Exposition Shanghai China 2010. Expo 2010 Shanghai Editorial Office, China Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-7-5001-2093-3
- Expo 2010 Shanghai China Official Guidebook. Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, China Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-7-5473-0164-7
- Expo 2010 Shanghai China Official Album. Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, China Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-7-5473-0158-6
Web links
Swiss television daily news from May 16, 2010
Film about the Swiss pavilion by Seppe van Grieken
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: press release. May 1, 2010.
- ↑ Swissinfo : E-mail interview with Pavilion Director Manuel Salchli. October 23, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d e Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: Press kit: facts about the Swiss pavilion. April 2010.
- ↑ Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: press release. April 18, 2007.
- ↑ a b c Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: press release. October 31, 2010.
- ↑ Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: press release. October 10, 2010.
- ↑ Design Prize Switzerland: press release. September 16, 2011.
- ^ Federal Department of Justice and Police: Media release. October 23, 2009.
- ^ Federal Department of Economic Affairs: Media release. August 11, 2010.
- ^ Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication: Press release. September 13, 2010.
- ↑ Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland: press release. November 19, 2010.
- ^ City of Zurich, Presidential Department: media release. April 21, 2010.