ABSTRACT
From computers in North America the Heatherwick Studio UK Pavilion was seen as the most emblematic architectural moment of Shanghai EXPO 2010. A surrealist archive, as if modelled on a ripe dandelion pod, the Seed Cathedral was a structure pierced by 60,000 acrylic rods, with the plant life contents of each distributed to Chinese public schools at the conclusion of the fair. Associated in virtual ythrough with the ‘Better City, Better Life’ thematic principles of green design and sustainability, it is tting that the UK pavilion took the spotlight from other nations at the fair. The Heatherwick building connects to the genesis of international exhibitions both through national inheritance and material language, via allusion to London’s 1851 glass and iron greenhouse pavilion for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.
