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UK Pavilion, Expo 2010 (Seed Cathedral)

UK Pavilion, Expo 2010 (Seed Cathedral)

Thomas Heatherwick

Location
Expo site, Shanghai, China
Client / Owner
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Year
Completed 2010 · Demolished true
Access
Demolished
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

The UK Pavilion at Expo 2010, nicknamed the Seed Cathedral, was designed by Thomas Heatherwick. He won a 2007 contest run by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and directed a nine-member group of British business and government resources. The article gives no construction dates and names no style beyond a rounded cuboid sculptural form.

The structure was 20 meters (66 feet) high. A steel and timber composite frame held 60,000 acrylic fiber-optic filaments, each 7.5 meters long. Their tips held 250,000 seeds from the Kunming Institute of Botany. Filaments rippled in the wind outside and lit up inside.

It cost 26 million pounds and drew about 50,000 visitors a day. It won a BIE gold award and the RIBA Lubetkin Prize, then was dismantled as planned.

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