“Only a few months following the opening ceremony for the International Exhibition in Zaragoza 2008, word has already come around of the Shanghai Expo 2010, which aims to be the greatest and most sustainable environmentally, but at the same time the most technological. In the hard task of making everything coexist, the pavilions will divide themselves between technological choices (…) and the sustainable ones, like the warped fabric made of steel and wicker of Spanish pavilion. The Barcelonese studio Miralles Tagliabue (EMBT) won the public contest.
The project proposed by EMBT consists on developing the handicraft technique of the wicker into a practice of construction. With this goal in mind, the universal language of the material works to build a bridge between East and West, and among Spain and China. With the volumetric, material, and structural inspirations of a wicker basket array, the void of the stands will mold a pavilion in which tubular metallic supports will sustain a wicker grid that will filter the light and function as a climatic membrane that wraps the pavilion.”


Text by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa
El Pais Babelia 03.11.07