Expo 2010

Everywhere's being 'done up' in advance of Expo 2010 which opens in just over a fortnight. The last (and only other) time I've been to Shanghai was in 2002 and I distinctly remember massive hoardings advertising the Expo eight years in advance. In the interim there's been miles and miles of new roads, new underground rail lines, and of course the site itself...

...which today I was lucky enough to visit, pre-opening, with the Teletubbies (well, their producers). It is immense: a gi-normous economic, cultural, technological theme park on the theme of Better City Better Life and where each country gets its own pavilion - the Chinese one being the biggest of them all of course. Even Liechtenstein and San Marino get their own space.

My main purpose was to see the UK Pavilion which is basically a large, spikey, grey cube set in a small grey park, all designed by Thomas Heatherwick. What's inside the cube? Well, encased in the other ends of the spikes (actually acrylic rods) are thousands of seeds which symbolise change, growth and ideas. And that's basically it - apart from some minor content on the ramps leading up to it and out of it. It's a risky, minimal approach, but it's certainly different! Most pavilions will be jam-full of stuff: displays, videos, this-that-and-the-other, and it's quite likely that the estimated 100 million visitors will be overwhelmed by content. The UK Pavilion could be the breather they need. Have a look at the websites: UK pavilion and Expo 2010.