The Shanghai World Expo opened in May and the UK Pavilion stood ready to greet the visitors. The Pavilion is created by Thomas Heatherwick studio and has a 20 meter high cube like structure pierced by 60,000 slim and transparent acrylic rods.
The UK, with its millions of gardens, thousands of public parks and garden squares, has pioneered the integration of nature into cities as a way of making them healthier places in which to live and work. The UK Pavilion encourages you to look at the role of nature and wonder whether it could be used to solve the current social, economic and environmental challenges of our cities.
Britain’s central contribution to bettering city life has been the creation of garden squares, public parks (which Britain pioneered), individual gardens, window boxes and allotments. There is, in the British mind, a profound value in maintaining a direct connection with nature. Urban and suburban gardens are among the richest and most diverse habitats for wildlife in the UK.
The UK Pavilion draws on the UK tradition and love of parks and gardens and offers a journey that celebrates ‘green-ness’; reflects the profound importance of maintaining a connection to the natural world; brings biodiversity into the heart of its vision for the better city of the future; and finishes by suggesting ways in which the future evolution of cities can draw on a deeper understanding of the natural world. It imagines the future ‘natural city’ developed in harmony with nature and enriched by technological innovation, which could nurture a pleasurable and sustainable urban lifestyle. It builds on the UKs past and present in looking forward to the future.
