Photo by Shreyans Bhansali - http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebigdurian/

With nearly 23 million people, Shanghai is China’s biggest and most populous city. It is the financial and commercial capital of the country and a leading cultural center in Asia. Throughout the 1990′s and 2000′s the city underwent immense growth and redevelopment, thriving on international business. The futuristic and ambitious skyline of Pudong is the heart of Shanghai’s business district, and is growing swiftly with towering skyscrapers and an advanced urban environment. More pictures and information after the break.

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Sadly,  Shanghai’s Expo 2010 ended yesterday after 184 exciting days.  Throughout the course of the exhibition, over 73 million people experienced great pavilions from countries across the world and we’ve brought you coverage of projects ranging from videos to project descriptions to photographs.  In these past months, we’ve shared a few of our reader Seppe’s videos with you (check out his German Pavilion, UK Pavilion, and Denmark Pavilion clips, previously featured on AD) and today we’re sharing his latest bit on the Swiss Pavilion.

The Expo, which opened on May 1st, allowed visitors to experience a taste of different cultures all arranged within the Expo’s 5.28-square-kilometer site.  From the beginning, the Expo was a hit.  Thousands flocked to the site on a daily basis, with the largest daily attendance hitting more than 1.03 million visitors on October 16th – breaking the record attendance set at the Osaka Expo back in 1970 for 844,000 on a single day.   As Yang Jian reported for the Expo, “Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said the Expo has made China and the world come closer together, and that a more open, inclusive and culturally advanced China that steadily moves forward will join other countries to usher in an ever brighter future for all.”

Only five structures will remain (the China Pavilion, the Culture Center, the Expo Center, the Theme Pavilions and Expo Boulevard) and with all the dazzling lights, amazing forms, and elaborate material skins dismantled, the site will now become a cultural, business and commercial center.

Here’s another great time lapse video from Seppe, this time walking us through the German Pavilion in Shanghai designed by Schmidhuber + Kaindl GmbH (more Shanghai coverage here).  Entitled Balancity, the pavilion is designed by Lennart Wiechell and at 6,000 m2, it is the country’s largest structure at any exposition.  The building’s geometric mass was conceived as a three dimensional sculpture and the form wraps certain spaces which showcase different aspects of Germany.  As you can see in the video, the pavilion includes a  central energy source, a  factory-like section, an opera and cultural section, and even a park.   The areas show Germany’s technological progressions and products meant to help solve urbanization problems, and visitors slowly glide past certain installations on moving walkways.    Unlike other countries’ pavilions that seem to work off of one cohesive theme, the German pavilion seems much more “busy” – it is a conglomeration of many different ideas and products with lots to see at each turning corner.   What do you think of Balancity?

Check out other videos Seppe has shared with us like his British Pavilion time lapse or his Denmark Pavilion video.  Full list of credits after the break. read more »

The aim of the project is to encourage reflections about the life in a community, an occasion for graphic designers and architects from all over the world to express, demonstrate and imagine possible solutions for a city, capable to improve the life of its inhabitants.

The graphic works (poster 70 x 100 and 100 x 70) will be selected by a jury of experts and will be exhibited in October in Venice together with Expo Shanghai 2010 and The Biennial of Architecture. For more information, visit the competition’s official website. Seen at Bustler.

We have seen the Danish pavilion on its conceptual stage, during construction, completed and finally opened to the public.

And now we got the chance to “ride” it with Bjarke Ingels from BIG, and get a closer look at the experience that the giant loop of the pavilion offers to the visitors, to have a little taste of the danish way of life.

Take a look at this video on the Danish Pavilion (thanks again, Seppe!) and be sure to view yesterday’s on the UK Pavilion.  The Shanghai 2010 Expo is in full swing and several of the pavilions are living up to their expectations.  Which pavilion is your favorite?

We’ve been covering the Shanghai 2010 Expo a lot on ArchDaily, and our reader Seppe shared some videos of the pavilions with us.  Today, we’re featuring a cool video on one of our favorites, the UK Pavilion (be sure to read about the project featured previously on AD) and be on the look out for more videos contributed by Seppe this week.

© IODICEARCHITETTI

For those of us not able to experience the Shanghai 2010 Expo in person, we hope these great photos by IODICEARCHITETTI of the Italian Pavilion will help convey the spirit of the project.

Check out more photographs after the break. read more »

Copyright Hu Wenkit

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. read more »

© Courtesy of URBANUS Architecture & Design Inc

Chinese practice Urbanus (previously featured at ArchDaily with their Jade Bamboo Culture Plaza, the Integrated Teaching Building in the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Tulou Housing Guangzhou) shared with us the exhibition design for the city Shenzhen at the UBPA (Urban Best Practice Area), an exhibit aligned with the Expo 2010′s main theme “Better City, Better Life”, which tracks how major cities around the world are coping with the new problems arising from their urbanization processes,  as well as their effective and creative solutions, making it as highly specialized exhibition space.

The city of Shenzhen evolved from a small fishing village to an international center in only 30 years, a complex process presented at this pavilion:

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The event series “Germany and China – Moving Ahead Together” presents itself in spectacular fashion during its sixth and last station: the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Designed by Markus Heinsdorff, the “German-Chinese House” is not only the architectural highlight of its Expo presence; it is also a forward-looking example for the use of natural construction material. It is the only two-storey building at the Expo whose load-bearing structures are made of bamboo. The building is an artistic encounter with the theme of sustainable urbanisation, which was the focus of the three-year event series from 2007 to 2010.

More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

The UK Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 is one of the people’s favorite (if not the most). We featured yesterday the pavilion’s details with some amazing photos and plans. Now, we could not pass the opportunity to show you this amazing video of the pavilion made by Channelbeta. The video was published by a reader in our Facebook group!

© Iwan Baan

The Shanghai Expo 2010 has opened its doors, and we start to see how the pavilions evolved from the previews we saw during design/construction phases at ArchDaily, to become a showcase of the current status of architecture from around the world.

The Denmark Pavilion was one of the first ones we presented you, almost a year ago. The project, designed by BIG with ARUP and 2+1, was interesting not only from an architectural and structural point of view, but also for the danish spirit it represents.

Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor (one of the most clean in the world), on which visitors can even swim.

© Iwan Baan

At the center of the pool you will find The Little Mermaid, a statue that has become a symbol for Denmark. And this time, it will be moved temporarily to China. In Bjarke Ingels words “it is considerably more resource efficient moving The Little Mermaid to China, than moving 1.3 billion Chinese to Copenhagen”.

After the break, more images of the completed pavilion by arch photographer Iwan Baan, including Bjarke Ingels himself riding a bike on the circular loop:

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© Daniele Mattioli

When we featured the first renders of the UK Pavilion back on August, 2009, many readers doubt that Heatherwick Studio’s design could be done (or at least look like the renders). The Shanghai World Expo 2010 has started and the UK Pavilion has become a favorite to many of you. Now you can see the complete projects.

More images, plans and architect’s description after the break. read more »

The Saudi Arabia Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010, which starts in two days, is a combine effort of Chinese and Saudi designers. The pavilion has a “moon boat” shape and is surrounded by deserts and seas, just like Saudi Arabia. Along with the 150 date palms that are now planted in the pavilion, it’s main attraction is a huge IMAX screen. The 1,600-square-meter screen is larger than any other cinema screen on earth. Short films will be presented on the screen.

You can see more images and a video after the break. read more »

Portugal

It seems that this week everything is about Shanghai. The World Expo 2010 starts in three days and the pavilions are ready. Yesterday, we featured some amazing photos that Chaz Hutton took at the Expo. Today, David Goss shared with us many more, and even a video inside the UK’s Pavilion. Check them out after the break!

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© Courtesy of Knippers Helbig

Architects: SBA international Stuttgart/Shanghai
Location: Shanghai, China
Structural Engineers: Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering
Managing Partners: Hong Li and Bianca Nitsch
Client: Shanghai World EXPO Land Holding Co. Ltd., Shanghai
Managing Partners: Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers, Dipl.-Ing. Thorsten Helbig
Contributors: Florian Scheible, Florian Kamp, Dirk Richter, Roman Schieber, Johannes Beran
Cooperation: ECADI, Shanghai, China
Gross Floor Area: 280,000 sqm
Membrane Roof Area: 65,000 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2010
Photographs: Thomas Ott, Wilfried Dechau, Knippers Helbig

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Taiwan

Back on March we featured a fantastic set of photos of the pavilions for Shanghai World Expo 2010 almost finished. Now, with only three days left for the grand opening to the public, the pavilions seem to be ready for the more than 70 million people expected to visit the Expo between April 30 and October 31.

Chaz Hutton shared with us through Flickr his amazing photos of the pavilions. You can check them all after the break. And remember you can see every pavilion we’ve featured right here.

¿Which one’s your favorite? read more »

© REUTERS/Aly Song

Only four days left to the grand opening and the pavilions of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 should be ready to receive thousands of visitors each day. We’ve been featuring a lot of pavilions but there is still a lot to cover, so we hope to bring you more on the Expo in the next few days (like a good preview of many pavilions ready later today). Meanwhile, check some of our latest ones, after the break.

Dutch Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010
The Dutch submission to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is an exceptional one. This time around, it will not be the classic pavilion with long lines of visitors waiting outside and a presentation inside. The Netherlands is making its appearance at China’s world exposition along an entire street. The submission, entitled “Happy Street”, is the response by designer John Kormeling to the Chinese Expo theme “Better City, Better Life” and the sub-themes (read more…) read more »

Copyright© Helen & Hard

Expo 2010 Shanghai is the first World Fair to adopt sustainable urban development as its theme. As consequence concepts which legitimise the extensive resource use and major investment of a World Fair must be promoted. The basic concept of “Norway Powered by Nature”, designed by Helen & Hard, directly engages this challenge, placing emphasis and awareness on multiple aspects of sustainability.

More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »