EWI Worldwide, a U.S.-based, global, live communications company, and NUSSLI, a leading Swiss-based supplier of infrastructures for events, trade fairs and exhibitions, recently won the contract to collaborate on the construction of the 65,000-square-foot German Pavilion at World EXPO 2010, opening this May in Shanghai, China. NUSSLI is responsible for the construction of the pavilion, with EWI Worldwide producing and installing the interiors and exhibits.
“We are honored to work with NUSSLI on this signature pavilion at the largest EXPO the world has ever seen,” said Ben Einer, president, International, EWI Worldwide. “Building from our recent experience with the Coca-Cola pavilion at the Beijing Olympic Games, we continue to expand operations in China and strengthen our capability to serve global brands in the Asian market and worldwide.”
The pavilion is developed around the theme “Balancity” – meaning “a city in balance.” Visitors to Balancity will journey through a city of ideas, transcending space on foot, moving walkways and escalators to experience thematic areas which integrate balance between work, play, nature and technology. More specifically, the pavilion displays the city’s ongoing balance of preservation versus renewal, tradition versus innovation and culture versus globalization.
Located to the south of the Lupu Bridge on Shanghai’s Pudong side, the architectural layout of the pavilion provides a unique aerial view of a silver shining polygonal sculpture. From the exterior, visitors will be greeted by polygonal volumes creating a roof over a diverse, multi-layered landscape that represents Germany’s 16 states. Once inside, they will journey through parks and gardens, a city square, a factory, and forum, ending at the Energy Source – the city’s power plant.
The Energy Source is the heart of Balancity and the highlight of the pavilion’s interactive tour. The visitors enter a room filled with an energetic choreography of lights spread over three galleries. Visitors to the galleries look out onto the room’s focal point: a huge sphere covered with 400,000 LED lights. The sphere’s movements and at the same time, impulses, are activated by the visitors. In the images on the sphere, which tell a story of diversity and contrasts, the visitors create a city themselves, a city for tomorrow where everyone feels at home and has a place. A city that thrives on the polarity and diversity that makes up its quality of life.
The creative team from Milla und Partner in Stuttgart developed the exhibition; the architects from Schmidhuber and Kaindl in Munich designed the pavilion’s architecture and the civil engineers from Nussli (Deutschland) GmbH near Nuremberg are responsible for installing the pavilion. Koelnmesse International is responsible for the preparation, organization and post-expo work. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has overall responsibility for Germany’s pavilion at EXPO 2010 Shanghai.
