Architecture&Life: Shanghai World Expo 2010

Brazil Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 update

There's only one week left for the grand opening of Shanghai's World Expo 2010, and as you may know, we've been featuring many pavilion's (all the pavilions here). One of the first ones was the Brazilian Pavilion designed by Fernando Brandão Arquitetura e Design.

The competition was for the decoration of a rented pavilion. There were many difficulties due to the rules imposed by the Expo.

So our work was for creating an outer skin to make the Brazilian Pavilion be notice and to reveal a "Brazility", a design that should express our design. Also we had the interior of the shed to play with the visitor's perception of the space.

The "parenthesis" form of the pavilions exterior refers to an open arm, as saying that the Brazil is like it, welcoming all different types of people and cultures.

A green skin, in "parenthesis" form, covers the exterior of the pavilion. This skin will be made by the reuse of wasted wood attached to a steel grid that will support it. This refers to the "Braziliality" of the Brazilian design.

The path inside the pavilion was conceived to surprise the visitor with the technology language that is so known by the Chinese. Inside the pavilion, the first room makes the visitor feel involved by the Brazilian theme, the everyday of a usual Brazilian citizen. Getting inside this room, the visitor is surprised by a surrounding plane. A ¼ of a circumference wall with televisions attached to it and mirrors at both ends of this plane. The mirror reflects the televisions, giving the impression that the wall continues and you fell surrounded by this environment of TVs.

The next room, and the biggest one, let the visitor choose his path, move around and know about Brazil. At the center was placed a squared box, lifted 1.5m from the ground, thus the visitor have to tilt to get in this box. Inside it there are 4 projections one at each side of the box, showing images of different Brazilians cities; and two totems moving around the space between the people showing the types of Brazilians citizens. At the floor the visitor will step in Brazilians' texture of fruits, beans, and the famous sidewalk of Ipanema…

At the outside walls, that delimits this space there are a series of touch screen televisions, with interactive software that allows the visitor to surf through Brazilians topics. One will exhibit the diversity of the Brazilians citizens; other will have the comparison between the moments of the cities history. At the others will have software that will show some topics about some Brazilian cities projects.

Than, the at next room there is a 180° wall with projections about the Brazilian happiness, the festivals, "carnavals", the soccer… and also, some times, it turns in to a movie exhibit.

The last space is the Exit corridor, where there is a line of projections about the Brazilian powerful resources. Passing through the corridor at exit of the pavilion there is a small store, selling some Brazilians hand craft. Also there is a restaurant that will serve traditional Brazilians meal.