Visitors to the Czech pavilion in the World EXPO 2010 in Shanghai will find themselves in a fictitious city, ‘where one can feel well and safe. In a city of activity, charms, production, traveling, observing and listening, where any passer-by can take an active part.’
Main theme of the 2010 World’s Exposition ‘Better City – Better Life‘ as well as the theme of the national participation under ‘Fruits of Civilization,’ had inspired the creators of this winning design to create an imaginary urbanized countryside. The pavilion and the exposition design is based in urban structures which are briefly depicted in caricature on the facades in front of the pavilion and within the exposition.
The white 2,000-square-meter structure will feature rubber ice-hockey pucks on its facade. The design signifies that pucks are a significant Czech export and ice hockey is its national sport, Czech officials have said.
The display will take place at a rented pavilion under the theme ‘Fruits of Civilization.’ It will spotlight the use of new technologies and renewable energy, transport solutions as well as a desire for privacy.
Visitors will experience a fictitious and magical city, modeled on Prague’s Old Town, inside the pavilion. One can ‘create and perform magic, travel and participate’ in the city, said Pavel Stehlik, commissioner general of Czech Pavilion at Expo 2010, late last week.
Visitors will be able to walk on the pavilion’s artificial grass while noticing a regular grid of streets above their heads. Moving from street to street, visitors will discover different artifacts or the fruits of civilization.
In the pavilion, simulated factories will be projected while a module may produce colors, scents and music in a bid to arouse emotions and a more complete experience for visitors. The display will also simulate a lake surrounded by fast-growing vegetation. The design refers to environmental protection awareness.
The country launched a nationwide pavilion design competition that was won by film-making firm company Dekor. The company also designed the Czech Republic’s pavilions at Aichi Expo in 2005 and Hanover Expo in 2000. The company produced the James Bond film ‘Casino Royale.’
The Czech Republic is expecting about 30,000 visitors per day to its pavilion during the 184-day Expo. The government has earmarked CZK 179 million (US$8.41 million) for the pavilion.
Some further information from the architects:
Urbanized Landscape
a) The concept idea
‘In the twenty-first century, cities are the venue of the densest system of social forms. They are a place, in which, more than at any other time in the past, there is reason to heed the meaningfulness of a future where human needs and the fast development of technology are in harmony. During their lives, people come across the various ‘Fruits of Civilization’ which are reflected in their preferred lifestyle.
A ‘better city with a natural and balanced environment is ideal for life. We want to feel good in it, without stress and to feel at home. The Czech pavilion wants to present the Czech Republic as a place (which symbolizes a city, the structure of human relations and human activities) which has a positive future and in which emphasis is mainly placed on the person as an individual, from whom the society is structured.
The Czech Republic prefers human interests, human needs. As well as an unlimited information network, the period of globalization has also brought a ‘cynical’ network of social forms, in which people have lost their former certainties. The Czech presentation should be an example of the positive contexts of human life which is represented by the city where people create, enchant, manufacture, travel, observe and listen and where all passersby can become actively involved.
Various Czech products (ranging from industrial products to art) will be presented by means of this form. The viewers should have a feeling of ease, solace, joy and relaxation. They will find themselves in a city which is pleasant and where nothing threatens them.
The pavilion and exhibition design is based on urban city structures which are created on the facades, in front of the pavilion and within the exhibition in a certain abbreviated and exaggerated form.
b) The outer pavilion walls
The façade has been conceived in a uniform manner from all sides. The main theme is a city in accordance with the main concept of the Expo and the Czech exhibition.
The structure of a city, which has been taken from one of the highest quality units on a worldwide scale and the center of the Czech state, has been created on the facade. In this way, we will come across part of the preserved area of historical Prague as we enter it via the Old Town Square and this will thus become the notional focal point of the pavilion.
The other facades will fluently connect to the Lesser Town and the New Town. The structure consists of small units which together form the individual city blocks. These units on the façade are rubber pucks, also a significant export article for our state. The base surface is white; the empty public area is the antithesis of the city blocks and is the setting for human relations and individual lives. This polarity is emphasized by the contrast from the transformation of the façade for night viewing.
The overall composition of the pucks placed on the font of the white surface of the pavilion using steel pins gives the façade the spatial impression of a living and valuable creation of human activities over the course of the centuries in Central Europe. The individual facades are perceived from various distances, which (especially in the case of the main southern façade) enables placement within the areas of the square.
The northern façade can only be viewed from the raised walkway (the so-called Skywalk) and for that reason the urban picture on that facade is located only at a level above the Skywalk. The western and eastern facades connect to the main section and are suitably supplemented with doors and windows. The northern and southern facades are supplemented with a plastic, lit sign with the legend ‘he Czech Republic’ in both Czech and Chinese and in red and blue. Together with the white background, these colors will symbolize the Czech flag.
The pucks which form the extended structure are simply screwed into threaded inserts using plated steel bars with threads. They are mounted in a prescribed pattern on wood-based panels (for example OSB) with a white surface finish and a slightly visible pattern. The pre-treated panels are anchored on battens to the sheet metal façade of the pavilion.
The roof remains unchanged in the design; it is not visible for any point within the framework of the area of the exhibition area.
c) The external area
The area in front of the pavilion draws attention and corresponds to the contents of our exhibition. It is defined by an undulating surface of reduced cubes referring to the interior concept. Here, however, the architecture directly touches the ground and it has a simple practical use – the easier direction of large numbers of people in the peak visitor hours.
The cubes have been shaped in such a way so as to create the view of a continuous surface and they are cut in such a way so as to enable the exit from the queue or the modification of the queue according to the number of expected visitors. The set of cubes can also be used to have a rest when waiting in front of the building.
The installation in front of the building is also in accordance with the facade which remains the main point of attraction. It is possible to place a flag of the Czech Republic on the flagpole within the framework of the resolved area.
d) The description of the exhibition
A city representing human civilisation is dependent upon natural resources. It is a place of life which is directly associated with the surrounding landscape.
In the Czech pavilion, we recall this connected and unavoidable duality in the layout of the pavilion. We move through an undulating landscape forming a notional base for civilisation, above which hovers a city which grows out of the landscape and cannot do without it. In both reality and the exhibition, the city is created by the fruits which civilisation has brought us and which essentially serve to simplify human life. These fruits are contained and framed in light, suspended cubes, in the same way as architecture frames our world.
Naturally, there are two types of output from civilisation: positive and negative. We do not reject this contradiction and the exhibition takes place within the framework of a wide range of civilisation’s pluses and minuses. We react to the negative elements with exaggeration and we raise the possibility of changing the negative factors into positives through human activities by presenting positive products of the Czech Republic.
Visitors to the pavilion walk in soft artificial turf and pass through the undulating terrain which consists of two hillocks, which form a depression between them. People can relax on the waves during the exhibition and perceive the entire area or view just part of the exhibition.
As well as the artificial turf, there is also urban paving in part of the pavilion and this draws our attention once again to the interaction between the urbanised landscape (city) and the cultivated landscape (the countryside). It is possible to pass through the pavilion without any limiting measures concerning the numbers of people and the movement of the visitors through the exhibition is continuous.
Above the terrain, there is a city of uniform shapes which endeavours to adapt to the given terrain by means of its orthogonality. Our town is depicted using uniform white hollow shapes and the areas between them which create the regular network of ’streets’. We move between the streets and in the blocks we come across, look for and perceive various types of displayed exhibits which differ in many respects and ways. They are the ‘fruits of our civilization’.
The exhibits are not presentations by artists; they should represent the individual civilisation topics in an attractive or even magical form: the viewer should be enchanted, emotionally affected and surprised. The exhibition does not attack the visitor, but draws him or her to it.
Five cubes reaching to the ground are partially open into the space and they contain exhibits on the themes of technology (scientific successes), home (the space where we live), transport (its problems and necessity), energy (positive uses) and the senses (it is important how a person feels). The exhibitions are associated with the names of artists, with the creators of products and with individual production technologies and scientific research, but they act only on the viewer’s senses.
There are no complicated descriptions and explanations which mean that the visitor can pass through the pavilion and be enchanted. Some exhibitions are interactive and react to the numbers of the visitors and there is a play area for children, but it is also possible to simply pass through the pavilion and enjoy its atmosphere.
A historical documentary offering a view of various places in the Czech Republic is projected onto the inner side of the outer wall.’
