Seed Cathedral: Architectural Perspective

Architecture is one field where innovations are made absolutely necessary almost every progressing day. This article will introduce you to one such architectural innovation.
World Expo 2010 Shanghai Expo of its kind event in the most spectacular is an event for the 21st century. To this end, the British designed and built the World Expo UK pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010 to add luster.#-Link-Snipped-#

The Shanghai Expo boasted of the following highlights:
•    184 days
•    More than 800 million visitors
•    More than 200 business
•    Than 500 senior business meeting
•    More than 3,000 senior business contact information
•    More than 10,000 guests take part in business activities
•    120 new investment projects
•    More than 600 performing artists
•    Field of public performances of more than 2000

But it was the British pavilion which was the head turner. The Shanghai World Expo UK Pavilion with stunning visual effects interpreted the British charismatic creativity and innovation. The Seed Cathedral is a platform to show the work of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and their Millennium Seed bank.
Now it is not a pin cushion that you see but it is the British pavilion at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Expo. It was completed by most creative genius Thomas Heatherwick. Also called the “seed cathedral”, it is 20-metre high, six storied and has 60,000 translucent rods, each 7.5m long, which act as optic fibers and provide lighting for the interior of the building during the day. It has a seed inside each fiber which emphasized on the theme of the expo “Better city. Better life”.
This UK pavilion shimmers with the beauty of this dynamic facade. It is dynamic in the sense the bristles or rods are flexible and it sways along with the wind causing a shimmering effect in the sunlight. This pavilion is surrounded by the pedestrian walkways and park where the public performances were staged.

#-Link-Snipped-#This pavilion’s interiors displayed an amazing star network kind of look which was lighted by the sunlight channeled through the rods. In the nights, the lighting was by having some small lighting elements in the rod for a breathtaking view.

The unique has been widely recognized: it was awarded Britain's top international architecture award, the famous Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) awarded gold Leber Architecture Prize (highest architecture prize in UK) in 2010; it received the largest grant the Expo pavilion Hall Design Gold Award.

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