Jiangnan Shipyard EXPO 2010 Pavilion (2008)

Project Data
 
Total GFA:   4.500m2 (Pavilion only)
Location:   Shanghai, China
Function:   World EXPO exhibition
Features:   Urban Reuse concept for Dry-Dock. EXPO Pavilion as kinetic sculpture.
Scope:   1st Price Competition Entry - Urban Design, Architectural Concept Design
Status:   Planning
 
 
Project Summary
 
The Plaza was conceived of like a sculpture garden featuring real parts of freight ships and oil tankers: tanks, machine parts, turbines and other artifacts that impress by sheer size. We wanted no ship, no cross section of a ship – but parts of them that are at first sight not easily identifiable in order to create a mystic feeling of history and scale, driven by the visitor’s curiosity. 
We suggested an entire fleet of disused Su Zhou Creek barges. In our re-use plan, they would find their final destination in the dry-dock, loaded with fertile soil instead of bricks and sand, turned into lush green floating gardens along with sculpted glass panorama platforms cafes and service facilities. 

Functionally, the “Water Dragon” Pavilion is a light-weight skin structure housing an open plan exhibition area, a panoramic VIP Lounge and Viewing Deck looking out towards Huang Pu River. Technically, it is a double membrane textile skin on a metal supporting structure. The space between both flexible membranes is occupied by a series of interconnected cushions which can be de- and inflated by air pressure. This causes the entire skin to move constantly. The exact movement is interactively generated by the visitors. The skin is translucent, so that viewers from outside get a sense of people moving inside and visitors inside still get a faint sense of the gigantic workshop structure they are in.

Parts of the workshop interior were to feature large (approx. 20-35m wide) suspended super-high-resolution photographic prints of shipbuilding scenes. Some of the elevated parts of the frozen wave landscape would feature telescopes for people to view these prints and discover the beauty of the detail, right down to the sweat and blood of the shipbuilder, hidden in this gigantic industrial scale scenario.