Monaco Pavilion / NAÇO Architecture

May 2010

By Karen Cilento — Filed under: Architecture News ,Pavilion , China, Monaco, NAÇO Architecture, Shanghai 2010

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As the previous pavilions we have featured on AD for the World Expo 2010 illustrate, the exhibition is, undoubtedly, a giant testing ground to experiment with the latest avant-garde design concepts. In late March, we featured Naço Architectures‘ pavilion and we have just be informed of some details of the facade treatment. The facade’s main focus was to capitalize on Monaco’s seemingly eternal presence of sun and sea. Designed so visitors will experience different lighting effects, the pavilion’s prominent water screen casts its reflections on and around the pavilion’s façade, “to symbolize a country surrounded by sea and sunshine and attached to respect its environment.”

More images and more about the facade after the break.

Instead of focusing on the reflective properties of water, the facade emphasizes the rays of light that allow the allusion of a rippling effect to texture the facade. External factors, such as the number of clouds or the wind velocity, will cause minute visual variations that will become magnified onto the building’s facade as a way to highlight the relationship between light and air, and ultimatly, bring the facade to life.

The facade also reflects Monaco’s position on sustainability, as the pavilion’s blue-tinted glass is all recycled, and the water is either rain or reclaimed water from air-conditioners. Overall, the method of having large water screen will, in fact, reduce the amount of direct sunlight that hits the structure, allowing the pavilion to naturally maintain a lower temperature during the hot summer months when it is exhibited.