PROJECT DATA

Name: EXPO 2010 DANISH PAVILION  

Code: XPO   

Date: 31/12/2009   

Program: Culture   

Status: Completed  

Size in m2: 3000 

Project type: Competition   

Client: Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority 

Collaborators: 2+1, Arup AGU   

Location Text: Shanghai, CHINA   

Location: (31.3606,121.599)  

Awards: 2011 Detail Award Special Prize for Steel; 2010 Exhibitor Magazine Awards (Best Exterior Design)  

PROJECT TEAM   

Partner in charge: Bjarke Ingels   

Project leader: Finn Nørkjær   

Project manager:   

Project architect:   

Team members: Niels Lund Petersen, Henrick Villemoes Poulsen, Jan Magasanik, Tobias Hjortdal, Claus Tversted, Armen Menendian, Kamil Szoltysek, Anders Ulsted, Pauline Lavie, Jan Borgstrøm, Sonja Reisinger, Cat Huang, Line Gericke  

PROJECT DESCRIPTION  

The Danish Pavilion was designed to not only exhibit Danish virtues, but, through interaction, to give the visitor an experience of some of the best attractions in Copenhagen: the city bike, the harbor bath, the nature playground and an ecological picnic. The bike is a vernacular means of transportation and a national symbol common to Denmark and China. With the pavilion we relaunched the bike in Shanghai as a symbol of modern lifestyle and sustainable urban development. The pavilion’s 1500 city bikes were offered for general use to the visitors during EXPO 2010. 

In the heart of the pavilion was a harbor bath, which is filled up with seawater from Copenhagen harbor. The visitors could swim in the bath and not only hear about the clean water, but actually feel and taste it. The Little Mermaid was transported to Shanghai to sit in the waterline of the pavilion’s harbor bath exactly as she is in Copenhagen harbor.  

In addition to promoting new modes of transportation, the Danish Pavilion was also the only naturally ventilated at the Expo. Air was cooled by the presence of the water, then, following the unique form of the building, moved through the entire space.