Spanish pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010 by EMBT

The project of the Spanish pavilion was won by the Barcelona studio EMBT, when in January 2007 it beat the remaining seventeen competition proposals. The pavilion, whose construction is currently in full swing, aims to create a symbolic bridge between Spain and China, according to the authors. With its appearance, the pavilion is meant to reference the Chinese tradition of rattan baskets. Through this ecological material, the architects attempt to connect tradition with the present. The variously twisted golden wall made of rattan creates two larger and several smaller courtyards used as exhibition areas inside.
The pavilion consists of three parts or three time periods. The first part “From Nature to City” focuses on the prehistoric era, the second part titled “From the City of Our Parents to Today” looks at the city of our previous generation and the present, and in the third period “From Our City to the City of the Next Generation”, they examine future life in the city.
Although only the rough construction has been completed so far, the authors have already managed to win several international awards for their wavy steel structure. The grand opening of the Spanish pavilion, costing 17.8 million Euros, is scheduled for May 2010.