Swiss pavilion at the Expo 2000 Hanover
The Swiss pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover , called ensemble, was the Pavilion of Switzerland at the World's Fair Expo 2000 in Hanover. It covered an area of around 3,000 m² and consisted exclusively of stacked wood, true to the exhibition theme of people, nature and technology - a new world is emerging.
The Swiss Pavilion was located on the 11th Boulevard of the Exhibition Grounds, next to the UK Pavilion and opposite the French Pavilion. The official opening of the Swiss pavilion took place on June 1, 2000 at the opening of Expo 2000.
Project management, general commissioner and costs
In April 1995, the Swiss Confederation was invited to participate in Expo 2000 through diplomatic channels. On October 25, 1995, the Swiss Federal Council spoke out in favor of Switzerland's participation. In December 1998 this was confirmed by a parliamentary decision. The project management of the Swiss pavilion lay with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs , with the Coordination Commission for the Presence of Switzerland Abroad (KOKO). KOKO was Presence Switzerland's predecessor organization . Former National Councilor Ruth Grossenbacher-Schmid was General Commissioner of the Swiss Pavilion .
The appearance of the Swiss Confederation at the Expo 2000 in Hanover cost around CHF 23.4 million (after deduction of income from the operation of the pavilion and the partial sale of the wood after the end of the world exhibition). The Swiss pavilion counted over 3.5 million visitors.
Concept and construction of the pavilion
The concept for the pavilion with an area of 3,000 m² and a wood volume of 2,815 m³ on a total plot size of 4,000 m² was provided by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor . His project entry with the working title Battery emerged as the winner from a total of 129 projects submitted in a two-stage competition. On September 11, 1997, the jury, headed by former member of the Council of States Arthur Hänsenberger , recommended the KOKO to carry out Peter Zumthor's project, combined with some proposed changes. For its part, KOKO approved the project and submitted the proposal to the Swiss Federal Council .
In his project description Peter Zumthor stated:
“We believe that Switzerland does not appear in Hanover 2000 as a seller of itself, that on the other hand it does not engage in the self-criticism in the shop window of a world exhibition that is required every day when doing homework. It follows that we may not represent flirtatious modesty (small is beautiful), but a noble understatement. We think it creates its own, longer lasting emphasis. "
The view of the pavilion was strongly reminiscent of a common, familiar image: piles of boards in a joinery warehouse . This is where the planning intuition originated. The Swiss pavilion was built by the Nüssli Group .
With the exception of the three cylinders inside the pavilion , which provided space for the restaurant, the VIP lounge, the offices and the shop, the pavilion was made entirely of wood, more precisely of twelve stacks of freshly cut larch and pine wood beams with a total weight of 2,012 tons . A total of 37,595 solid wooden beams were used for the construction, which were stacked on top of one another without glue or nails, as in a carpenter's warehouse. The staggered stacking walls of the 50-meter-long, 50-meter-wide and 9-meter-high sound body were held in place by steel cables connected with spring tension rods, which followed the wood as a variable and living material, in a minimal, elegant design. The 9 meter high walls separated the interior in a complex, labyrinthine order, with the larch beam ceilings resting on vertical beams made of Douglas fir . The total length of the built-in wooden beams was 144 kilometers.
The pavilion was exposed to light, air and rain. Accordingly, it changed optically in a natural way in the course of the five-month expo 2000. The shrinkage of the wood in the course of the world exhibition was about 29 centimeters. Accordingly, the steel cables had to be retightened again and again using the spring tie rods.
The international media reported extensively on the pavilion, with the focus mostly on the architecture that was described as spectacular.
tour
Between the piles of wood, a total of 45 gap-like openings, which stretched over all four sides of the building, led into the interior of the sound box , which looked like a labyrinth. There was no actual main entrance, which was an advantage. Despite the large number of visitors, there were never long queues in front of the pavilion.
Gaps opened up inside the pavilion. Six of them were sound spaces, where visitors to the accordion - and dulcimer players met that according to the for the pavilion by Daniel Ott musical composed concept klangkörperklang music on a sound carpet weaving. Various soloists always created new musical patterns in this sound carpet. Due to its wooden construction, the pavilion had excellent acoustics .
"The pavilion is actually a resonance box , a body of sound ."
With the help of light projections, literary collages with quotations appeared on the walls. a. by Friedrich Dürrenmatt , Max Frisch and Franz Hohler , in the four national languages of Switzerland ( German , French , Italian and Romansh ).
The pavilion appealed to all five human senses . The piles of wood offered an experience for the eyes and the sounds of music for the ears. But also the sense of touch and smell were not neglected. The wood could be felt. In addition, the scent of the freshly cut wood changed and intensified depending on the weather. The taste for the palate could be experienced in a restaurant in one of the three metal cylinders inside the pavilion. There, visitors could enjoy Swiss specialties such as Bündnerfleisch , Bündner nut cake , Swiss wine and full moon beer.
The Swiss designer Ida Gut was responsible for the clothing of the staff in the orchestra .
Prominent visitors in the Swiss pavilion
The Swiss pavilion was visited by numerous prominent personalities, including the then Federal President Adolf Ogi . Ogi visited the Expo 2000 on June 9, 2000 as part of the National Day. On this occasion he met the German Transport Minister Reinhard Klektiven .
Of the total of 7 members of the Swiss Federal Council , 6 of them visited the pavilion. In addition to Federal President Adolf Ogi, these were Pascal Couchepin , Joseph Deiss , Ruth Dreifuss , Moritz Leuenberger and Ruth Metzler .
Other prominent visitors to the orchestra were the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder , the former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker , Bertrand Piccard , Ferdinand von Bismarck , Gunter Sachs , Uschi Glas , Elisabeth Mann Borgese , Norman Foster as well as Kurt Felix and Paola Felix .
Reuse
The staple wood of the orchestra was sold back to the Swiss Sawmill and Wood Industry Association (SHIV) . The SHIV found around 20 different buyers of partial quantities of the wood in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Two smaller lots of around 100 m³ and 140 m³ were donated to the Förderverein Freibad Banteln e. V. and the museum village Düppel in Berlin-Zehlendorf given away. Proceeds of CHF 567,000 were achieved for the wood sold.
The remainder of the wood was used at the Swiss national exhibition Expo.02 for the construction of the spherical house Le Palais de l'Equilibre . After the expo.02 closed , a further use was sought for the building that had previously been in the Neuchâtel exhibition area .
The Palais de l'Equilibre , and with it part of the larch and pine wood beams of the orchestra , found its final place in 2004 on an area opposite the CERN visitor center on the western outskirts of Meyrin . Since then, the Kugelhaus has been called the Globe of Science and Innovation .
In contrast to the physical pavilion, i.e. wood, the concept of the sound body was never sold. After the end of the Expo 2000 there were u. a. Discussions with the city of Zurich to rebuild the orchestra in the Sihlwald . However, the idea was not pursued.
literature
- Peter Zumthor : Sound body book: Lexicon for the pavilion of the Swiss Confederation at the Expo 2000 in Hanover. Birkhäuser, Basel 2000, ISBN 978-3-7643-6324-6 .
- Markus Diekow; Birgit Breuel (Ed.): The EXPO book, official catalog for Expo 2000. Bertelsmann, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-570-00343-4 .
- Expo 2000 Hannover GmbH (Ed.): The EXPO-Guide, official guide through the Expo 2000. Bertelsmann, Hannover 2000, ISBN 3-570-00345-0 .
- Expo 2000 Hannover GmbH (Ed.): The EXPO Guide, Official Guide through Expo 2000. Bertelsmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-570-90077-0 .
- Expo 2000 Hannover GmbH (Hrsg.): Architektur Expo 2000 Hannover / Architecture Expo 2000 Hannover. Hatje Cantz, Ostfilden, 2000, ISBN 3-7757-0924-X (German / English).
Web links
- Photos of the Swiss pavilion at the Expo 2000 Hanover
- Report on the Expo 2000 Hannover in the main edition of the Tagesschau of Swiss television on June 1st, 2000
- Report on the Swiss Pavilion Expo 2000 Hanover in the program Menschen Technik Wissenschaft (MTW) from May 2000
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c press release. Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, June 8, 2000.
- ↑ a b c d e Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 9.
- ^ Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 30 f.
- ^ Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 69.
- ^ The Museum of the Expo 2000 Hanover. (Website)
- ^ Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 41.
- ^ Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 63f.
- ^ Final report of the General Commissioner. 2001, p. 86.