ARCHELLO YOUR CONNECTION WITH ARCHITECTURE

AKT were collaborating with the designer Thomas Heatherwick on the UK Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo in 2010. His vision was for a giftbox surrounded by a landscape which represents its unfolded wrapping paper. The deformations in the landscape provide a variety of outdoor and covered spaces for different functions including offices, retail, VIP and queuing space.

The gift itself is a fused enclosure with 65,000 clear acrylic spikes which act as light tubes, illuminating the interior during daylight hours and express light on the exterior surface in the nighttime. Support to the acrylic is provided via the extension of the aluminium sleeves and replaced with steel sections at the base. This provides the illusion of resting purely on a shaft of light.

The ends of each spike internally curtain seeds from Kew Gardens’ Millennium Seed Bank. This creates a calm internal space allowing visitors to appreciate the essence of plant life. The space is referred to as the ‘Seed Cathedral’.

To achieve this effect a radical use of materials was required in combination with tight constraints on flamboyance in order to realise this stunning project within the tight budget constraints.