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BIG Designs Danish Pavilion for Expo 2010 Shanghai

by Nicholas Tamarin | Monday, May 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

While it may not have as many tiles as SPAN & Zeytinoglu’s Austrian Pavilion, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s Danish Pavilion for the Expo 2010 Shanghai more than makes up for it with the 300 bicycles has on hand.

They’re not just for show either; visitors are encouraged to hop on and head out for a tour of Copenhagen’s best sites, albeit on a smaller scale to suit the Shanghai space, which will be open through the end of the international fair on October 31. The pavilion’s design is based on a traffic loop—those who chose to forgo the city’s preferred method of transportation can simply walk—that runs through replicas of  the city’s harbor bath, playground settings, and a roof garden.

Also on hand is Copenhagen’s actual Little Mermaid, based on the story by Denmark’s most famous export, Hans Christian Andersen, and moved from her perch on city’s harbor to Shanghai just for the expo (while in Shanghai, she will be replaced by a multimedia artwork by Ai Wei Wei which includes a live broadcast of the statue from the expo).

The loop, which is connected in two places, allows visitors to move onto the roof, pick up a bike, and head to the outdoor cycle path that slips into the interior and runs along the entire exhibition before exiting onto the expo grounds.

The 32,292-square-foot pavilion was devised as a monolithic structure and is constructed of white painted steel to deflect the Shanghai summer sun. Its exterior façade is also steel, this time perforated, and in the evening turns into an interactive light show. The roof is covered with a light blue surfacing texture that is used on actual Danish bike paths.

“Throughout the design and realization of the Danish Pavilion a wide range of disciplines, such as architecture, engineering, lighting design and art installations meld together to create a single structure that plays like a finely tuned instrument,” says BIG partner and pavilion project leader, Finn Norkjaer.

All images by Iwan Baan; courtesy of BIG Architects.