Australian Design Review

These are the latest pictures of the Australian pavilion, designed by Wood Marsh for the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The pavilion is due to be complete in six weeks’ time.

Australia’s Commissioner-General Ms Lyndall Sachs said the pavilion was “Australia’s largest investment in a world expo”.

Designed by Wood Marsh in conjunction with creative design firm Think!OTS, the Australian pavilion has a COR-TEN steel exterior, and a “modern and organic” form. Recalling the firm’s design for the ACCA in Melbourne, the pavilion design is also designed to have no obvious front, rear or sides – the main entrance marked by the glowing sign above a glazed entry way.

Construction started in January 2009 – making Australia one of the first countries to begin work on its pavilion. It is due to be completed by 15 March 2010, six weeks ahead of the opening of the Expo.

The building is designed to accommodate 40,000 visitors per day, taking visitors through a 160-metre long glass-enclosed ramp, which wraps around the outer edges of the building – at points, penetrating the exterior skin – leading visitors past six exhibition elements on their way to the centre of the pavilion. A 1,000-person capacity theatre is at the heart of the building.

The pavilion also includes a 15-metre high atrium, and a VIP space that overlooks it, as well as food, beverage and retail areas and an elevated stage for daily cultural performances.

Roger Wood, director of architects Wood Marsh, told Shanghai Daily in an interview that the key priority was “to make it distinctly Australian,” explaining: “What we came up with reflects not only Australia’s unique and stunning landscape but [also] the creativity and dynamism of its architecture and design industries.”