ARCHITECTURE

By: Jennifer K. Chan 12K

August 25, 2010

Architecture, to me, is the science of creative manipulation of the

earthly elements. It also can be purely art for anyone’s eyes to admire the
sleek structures and the shapes of any objects in their own countries that
symbolize the national treasures. It also can be type of the art that is always
being functional as well. They have to be useful to the people who own the
buildings or use the buildings for everyday lives. There are good examples
that support my own description.

Like the time when I was in Shanghai for this summer holiday, just to
look at the buildings that were in Expo 2010. I was in awe of the designs
that are made for different buildings with their own themes. It was amazing
experience, and also you can get to feel how people get so comfortable in
the buildings. So, the main theme of the Shanghai Expo 2010 was that
“Better City and Better Life”. It represents the common wish of the whole
humankind for better living in future urban environments. This means that
there are still concerns of international community with policy making, urban
strategies and sustainable development.

When I was walking among the tall buildings, full of lights that are
flashing in different areas of the buildings, I could see the people becoming
very energized to see different nations with their own buildings that have the
association to their culture, agricultural culture, multinational culture, and
etc. And I too can see the huge differences in the structures and the shapes
that I never expect of. I would thought the expo would be more likely
ancient buildings or the exact replicas of some historical famous places in
the nations. However, I was very wrong. What I saw there are the most
breath-taking, beautiful designs and very simplistic.

Canada Pavilion is one of the biggest buildings, which is looped as a

“C”. It is the first place I have went to explore. As I have gone around the
building, it has very beautiful, chunky shapes of the walls that can light up in
different colours during the nighttime. It is also in the open-air, this takes
away our stereotypes of seeing the land in tracts of snow and ice, replacing
it with the warm atmosphere and the breath-taking view of the sky. There
are NO excessive woods and other materials that are in waste, but only the
performance of Cirque de Soleil that gives Canada pavilion more lively than
before and won’t let the visitors forget the moment in there. Honestly, I
never went in there, but I heard about it and watch the news, where they
have shown the views.

Norway is the next building I have walked into, but when I enter, the
air has rushed at me. I could feel at ease when I encountered the area of
the screens that plays the images of musician playing soothing music, this
made me feel like at the sea and also they put the musicians in the
backgrounds of the Northern Lights. Along the way, we saw these glaciers
display, which shows many things about the North Pole and how to cultivate
the environment in Norway. And I realize that the structure of Norway
Pavilion is made of the pine trees and China’s bamboo trees. This shows the
unity between China and Norway in terms of acceptance of humankind. And
also when you see above when the sun shines on the glass roof, it accepts
the effect of blue sky. This area is like my home, because I can see the blue
sky from inside my home in Hong Kong.

Denmark Pavillion is just the simplistic double spiral with ramps that
goes up and down. And also they painted the walls white because of the
sailing tradition they have in Denmark and to keep the pavilion cool, rather
than having air conditioners inside. It is called. “Welfairytales”, which is a
blend of Welfare and fairytales. I realize that they have been true to their
theme as I walked up the walkway and saw the quotations that tells the
whole story like a fairytale about how did Denmark starts, becoming the
country, and it leads into the lives of Danish children and Danish adults,
going through the Danish technology to keep it running better and finally the
end of story is of solutions for future urban living. However, this doesn’t
make Denmark enchanting, but a statue of Little Mermaid did! The statue
just came all the way from Denmark, just to be in the pavilion. Visitors now
can enjoy the view without any worries in going to Denmark for vacation! It
gives me more energy when I went to the top to see the views above.
 Since Sweden is very well-known for being very innovative in their
engineering, Sweden Pavilion is very proud of their flag, since it is designed
in four cubes-like structure that are arranged to form cross like space when
seen above. It is connected that there are many things, which have a lot of
spaces for visitors to come in. At first, when I walked in, the turning walls of
pictures that show the happy faces of Swedes greeted me. I get a bit
comfortable and happy when I felt the warmth for them. There are a lot of
creativity and innovation around the buildings that sort of inspire me to have
some little ideas. I could feel the Spirit of innovation coming from Sweden
Pavilion because of the way how it is structured inside like a children’s
playground and yet so simple. On the surface, you can see the slide where it
lends to the basement, and you can see the swings. You can imagine how
happy the kids and adults are when they are on swings. I was happy on it
because it did remind me of my childhood with my parents.

Finally, the last place I went is Iceland Pavilion is like an “Ice Cube”
decorated with the backlit printed fabric onto the surface. The patterns are
made of ice patterns that are inside the glacier. The exterior walls at the
entrance are made of block lava, specially delivered all the way from
Iceland. It gives 3D dimensional appearance to the entrance. Projection will
be used to show the beautiful landscape and urban life in Iceland. Eight
projectors inside and outside of the pavilion will create a 360-degree audio-
visual effect. Images showing the landscape and people of Iceland will be
projected onto the walls. The pavilion will also show a circular-screen movie.
So basically it is like as though we are in Iceland already! This is also one of
the most useful ways if we can use the screens in most needed for anything,
rather than being wasteful. I enjoyed the presentations and the simplicity
they have transformed for us.

In the end, I have found out that they have to use the designs to give
the ideal environment that strongly echoes its natural surroundings that can
increase the sustainability. I realize this is really the case in each countries I
have been to like Barcelona, where Antonio Gaudi uses his designs to
represent the natural objects of his own religion and the country in order to
make people enjoy the environment more than ever with its simplistic
purpose: Embrace the Nature, Get More Energy. And there is a theory that
the world is ending soon because the world is now too advanced due to
many buildings that have ruined a lot of rocks that can absorb the water.
You have seen the mudslides in Philippines and China.

It is also linked with the saving environments. I want the world to be

more simplistic instead of the tall, chucky buildings like more green and little
houses that can be recycled after the few years of staying on land. And I’m
hoping that I can achieve with usage of recycled materials and less papers.