A pavilion for future cities

Host City met the man who will decide which architect will design the British pavilion for Shanghai. Sustainable urbanisation, the specialism of one leading candidate, is a key theme

Designing a national pavilion for a World Expo is a unique challenge that offers tremendous scope for creativity in architecture. It also holds the promise of the ultimate reward – the prize for the best pavilion at the Expo. Like many of the growing number of countries exhibiting at the Shanghai World Expo in 2012, the UK has its eyes on this prize.

These twisting structures planned for the business bay
district of Dubai demonstrate an inventive approach to
urban development (Source: Zaha Hadid)

The UK Foreign Office has enlisted the expertise of Malcolm Reading & Associates, specialists in design competitions, to find a suitable designer for the project. Appropriately enough, the firm is running its own competition to find the ideal designer for the task.

Malcolm Reading & Associates started out project managing the design of British embassies for the Foreign Office. The company also ran a contest for the commission of London’s Millennium Bridge and chose Foster + Partners for the project. More recently, it found a designer for the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Malcolm Reading says: “What we do is help clients find architects by running a series of competitions. We then help the client manage the architect and the design team to deliver the project.”

The British Government recognised the company’s track record for running architectural competitions. “The Foreign Office wanted somebody that had done a lot of international competitions and who was able to work overseas as well as here in London; partly because they wanted the competition to be run independently of them as an organisation, so they can be seen to be engaging fully with the profession, and partly because we have a good process,” Reading says.

There are very few companies that offer this service of management competition, and even fewer that get as closely involved with clients and projects as Malcolm Reading & Associates. “Our process includes site visits – we arranged a visit to the World Expo site for the teams. So when we finally come to select a team that you want to go forward, it’s not just informed by a feeling of: ‘Oh wow, what a great design’; it’s actually informed by all the conversations you’ve had beforehand and a thorough analysis.”

The Expo factor
For all exhibiting nations, a World Expo is a platform for furthering diplomatic relations with the host nation. And with 70 million people expected to attend the 2010 Expo, a national pavilion represents a fantastic opportunity to present a country’s individual merits.

The primary deciding factor in this contest is an understanding of what the UK is trying to promote in at the Expo. “The themes we are looking for are really about how you achieve the Expo’s title of ‘Better City, Better Life’. We are looking for a team that understands how to get that message across.”

Other themes that the British government is interested in taking to World Expo in 2010 include support for education, support for UK’s core skills such as the construction industry, science and research.

Another important parameter in the search for a design is to select one that the best chance of winning the greater contest – the prize for the best pavilion at the Expo. “I don’t know the criteria for that, but what we want is positive public reaction – for people to say: ‘That is just fantastic.’ That is what we are looking for; not just a great piece of pavilion design, but a whole experience that will really capture people’s imagination.”

But the biggest issue that the UK wants to address at the World Expo is climate change. The UK sees the Expo as an opportunity to pass on some of its experience as an industrialised nation, pointing out some pitfalls to avoid on the path to prosperity.

Zaha Hadid’s extension to the Ordrupgaard
Museum associates the internal with the external
environment (Photo: Helene Binet)

“The British government is trying to get across the idea that climate change is an inescapable fact. There are many different interpretations of how we solve this and how we work toward dealing with it,” Reading says. “There’s an educational issue of how to respond to it when you have mass urbanisation. Britain has a lot to say about this because we’ve been through this over the last two centuries, since the industrial revolution. So there are messages that we can give about how we have addressed urbanisation, and the mistakes that we have made.”

The successful architect will be one who has a sense of how to express this environmental awareness in the building design without making too obviously instructive messages. “We are looking for an understanding of how the building itself can be used to promote ideas about climate change; for somebody who really grasps this educational process and can incorporate this into the design.”

Although photovoltaic cells and wind turbines may well feature in the winning design, incorporating environmental technologies that are already being taken up the world over will have a limited impact. And any educational messages about climate change will be very carefully tailored to the mindset of the visitors to the Expo. “Telling visitors to cut their carbon footprint and use less power is simply not going to cut any ice. That kind of an educational approach is far too didactic – it’s not going to leave a message.”

Reading hopes to find an architect who can take a more conceptual approach by showing the enormous impact of urbanisation and what can be done to ameliorate it. “It’s very much about raising awareness and a level of understanding about issues that the UK might be able to assist on – from financial services all the way through to regeneration. The pavilion is not there to provide solutions; it’s there to stimulate thinking and further debate.”
 
Six strong contenders
The competition generated huge interest in the UK architecture world, with 47 firms putting themselves forward for the project. This initial number has been cut back to a list of six frontrunners. “The shortlist is outstanding,” Reading says. “What we have come up with is a great range of architects offering different approaches, which I personally think is very good for British export. The pavilion itself should be a showcase for British design, as well as being something which is good for the content inside.”

One candidate that can bring a great deal of environmental awareness to the project is Avery & Associates. Bryan Avery is currently writing a book called Fragments of Wilderness City, which examines how the relationship between the city and the countryside can break down as a result of industrialisation – and how to prevent this from happening by being sensitive to the rural spirit in the design of the urban environment.

Bringing something of the pastoral idyll into the built environment is something that the UK excels at, Avery says. “The biggest contribution we have made to the design of better cities is the integration of the pre-industrial, rural way of life into the most sophisticated environments the world has known. We have been able to forge a continuum from the past into the future by responding to deep human needs.”

London has evolved in such a way as to allow its citizens to continue a relationship with nature through gardens, allotments, parks and squares. “London’s Lambeth country fair still features sheep shearing and jam making. It’s not like Cairo, Mexico City or even Athens, where you see an uninterrupted urban environment,” he says.

The negative aspects of urbanisation are specific to the large metropolis, Avery says. “The problem isn’t the market town, it’s the vast conurbation. The most successful parts are those that relate to the village scale. The ‘villages’ within London, such as Highgate and Hampstead, are separated from one another by greenery – essential, not just for social and environment reasons but for identity too. And village scale here does not mean a very low destiny and traditional materials. They should be built to a very high density for sustainability reasons and therefore have small foot print, like a village.”

UK have also achieved this sense of continuity with the pastoral way of life. “The garden city is Britain’s biggest contribution to urban design. This toe-hold on the past is a universal human need, and we design cities without that at our peril.”

The way nature is managed outside cities also has a global impact. Avery advocates the reintroduction of areas of unmanaged land beyond the farming belt to allow people to experience the wilderness closer to home. “If you make the countryside all too safe, people have to go ever further to experience wildness, which increases their carbon footprint.”

The interaction between urban and rural areas is a sub-topic of the 2010 World Expo’s “Better City, Better Life” theme, so Avery’s enthusiasm for this subject should stand him in good stead – if he can convey these big ideas in a pavilion that will occupy a plot of 6,000 sq m. “How this will translate into a pavilion is the challenge – that’s the exciting bit,” Avery says.

Avery’s interest in climate change issues was a factor in Reading’s decision to select him for the shortlist. “He’s very enthusiastic about the opportunities for using the building to demonstrate climate change issues and the way that buildings can address and help to ameliorate climate change,” Reading says. “He’s quite technology-focussed and always interested in using different materials.”

The second candidate on the shortlist is Draw, is a new company from Edinburgh made up of two partners, one of whom left a company called RMJM – pronounced “Rumjum” – a very large international practice that designed the Scottish Parliament. “This chap has come out of RMJM and teamed up with a guy in Hong Kong. The World Expo is one of their first commissions, so they are very keen to get somewhere. And they have some local knowledge,” Reading says.

Reading is expecting a very creative contribution from the third candidate, Heatherwick Studios. “Thomas Heatherwick is a young architect-sculptor who is interested in space and materials. He’s just opened a tiny little café on the south coast, made of rusty steel, which has attracted a lot of interest. He’s also very much on the edge of technology and showing ways that architecture will respond to form. I think his design is going to be a very interesting.”

The fourth candidate, John McAslan + Partners, is has taken the unique approach of coordinating a group of seven young architectural practices to join them on the scheme. “John McAslan is a long established, very good architectural practice, which is very interested in the way that the environment impacts on the building. They have an interesting approach in that they are actually using people who haven’t got a great deal of track record to assist with the design.”

Marks Barfield, the fifth candidate and the designer of the London eye, is now involved in a project in Brighton, UK, to replace the collapsing West pier with a viewing platform 360m high – the original length of the pier. “This is a great crossover between engineering, architecture and use of materials. They are one of the practices who are very well-known globally for what they do,” Reading says.

The sixth and final candidate on the shortlist is Zaha Hadid Architects. Born in Iraq and trained in the UK, Hadid was the first woman to win the internationally coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. “She’s very much an international architect. Although she did extremely well in avant garde architectural circles, she hadn’t got a completed building until the year 2000. But now she is involved in a whole range of work, especially in the field of the arts.”

Currently designing the London 2012 Aquatic Centre, Zaha Hadid has much relevant experience. “What’s interesting about Zaha Hadid is that they have done a lot of work on pavilions – not necessarily for expos, but short term, temporary buildings. They come from a slightly different angle; they have a very interesting approach because they are very clued up and knowledgeable about how a pavilion operates and works. They are also really fantastic architects,” Reading enthuses.

Bringing design to reality
The UK has been awarded a 6000 m sq riverside plot. “That’s a reflection of how important the British contribution is seen. We are not only on the riverside, but very much part of a green walkway.”

Construction managers and project managers Mace will be project managing the delivery of the design and construction if the pavilion. One of their biggest projects is the London Olympics. “They have a very good international stretch, mainly in Europe and the US; this is their first project in China,” says Reading.

There will be a requirement to work with both local architects and engineers. “All of the teams are very keen to do this. They will very much be part of the design and construction process.”

The UK’s budget for the pavilion is GBP 10m / USD 20.4m (RMB 155m), half of which comes from the public sector and half from the private sector. This figure compares very well with other European countries and pavilions; at the Aichi World Expo in 2005 in Japan, the UK spent around GBP 4m / USD 8.2m (RMB 62m). The UK will not be alone in investing more than ever before in a pavilion in order to make an impact. For all exhibiting nations, the 2010 World Expo presents an opportunity not to be missed.