Finally, the EXPO has opened: The ultimate in world exhibition. China has not spared any cost and trouble to break any record with the EXPO held in its own country. Under the motto “Better City, Better Life”, it invites the world to its most important economic metropolis. Hardly any country in the world has rejected its invitation to attend. Even the United States is represented, which had to use private sponsors because the financing of EXPO pavilions through public funds is forbidden and so is North Korea. Both celebrate their world exhibition debut.
The Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Reinhold Mitterlehner and the government’s EXPO Commissioner Hannes Androsch opened the Austrian pavilion. It is a recommendation for Austria’s capacity in high tech and has been constructed by ALPINE’s Chinese – Alpine Mayreder Construction Co. Ltd – subsidiary as general contractor. The building’s design and functionality are visionary. Construction and technology are strictly state-of-the-art. Three quarters of this project were financed by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs (BMWFJ) and one quarter was financed by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
The architectural design by SPAN and Zeytinoglu Architects is trend-setting. There is hardly a straight line in this 2.000 m² biomorphic building, featuring flowing structures. The design is based on very complex software that simulates the behaviour of sound in space. It was used in this fashion for the first time in the world. Everything that appears to be organic is based on complex mathematical computations. However, planning was not only concerned with design but also functionality. The winding shape of the space aids the flow of visitors through the building.
The three-dimensionally distorted building envelope also had to be calculated in great detail. The entire building is covered by a shimmering porcelain skin. To create this effect, approximately 5 million Chinese tiles in changing hues of white and red had to be applied according to a precisely determined pattern. Only in this fashion was it possible to make the complex bending of the building’s skin appear seamless while in fact the opposite is true.
ALPINE handled the implementation of this demanding architectural concept with innovative technology and state-of-the-art know-how. Ahead of time, all construction elements of the steel construction, the cladding’s substructure and the cladding’s skin had to be modelled in 3D to ensure that the individual construction elements would fit into one another and that the overall look of the cladding could be created as planned. To construct the main front at the South side of the building – the pavilion’s “show piece” – the cladding was divided into 60 cm sections to provide the local craftsmen with the needed measurements and details required for execution. In this fashion, the entire exterior was locally constructed without any prefabricated elements.
A further highlight of the pavilion is the futuristic looking interior and the extravagant encasement of supports inside the restaurant. These were manufactured in Austria from EPS (expanded polystyrene) by special electronically controlled CNC machines. The surface was prepared with a polymer coating and finally treated with high-gloss varnish. The furniture is up to 6 m long. The individual parts were packaged, shipped and upon arrival reassembled and installed.
ALPINE was also responsible for the development and installation of the multi-media system and faced and mastered a real challenge. At the EXPO 2010, Austria presents itself in a multi-media and interactive environment. The visitor can expect a host of impressions under the motto “harmony of sensations” whereby virtual and actual reality are combined into a comprehensive experience. Walls, floors and ceilings are used for the projection of high resolution images. Sensors and cameras installed throughout the interior record every movement and interactively control the virtual worlds in four different experimental zones. The visitor is lead through the high alpine world of the Alps and a fresh forestry landscape, passes a stream and a lake and is guided to the urban living space of Vienna. The environment invites to become active, to interactively take part or to retrieve information by touch.
Enormous technology was required to create this striking experience, which was created in close cooperation with a well-known Austrian multi-media company. The pavilion’s technology centre houses 7 servers and 73 projectors were installed inside the building. The installation of projectors into the walls and ceilings – not a single projector can be seen by the visitor – required extraordinary coordination with ongoing construction, particularly due to the limited space available. To adjust the projected images to the flowing forms of the rooms, special tools were developed to deskew clips during play. Transitions between projections were adjusted at pixel level. High-quality, multi-channel sound systems create surround-sound effects and provide the visitor with acoustic feedback.
The construction and outfit of the Austrian pavilion was a logistics tour de force, quite in addition to the challenges in construction and technology that also needed to be mastered. Strict security precautions and access controls for personnel and material, complicated and time-consuming import procedures by an EXPO-nominated forwarding agent and extensive EXPO-specific regulations required the formation of special teams that exclusively were dealing with the handling of all requirements.
Seen against the background of all the challenges that had to be mastered by ALPINE during the construction of the Austrian EXPO pavilion, having completed it on schedule and to the customer’s full satisfaction may well be classified as a special feat. And the work invested is well worth it. The Austrian pavilion ranks – off the record, of course – amongst the top-five most beautiful pavilions.
