Shanghai Expo Danish Pavilion

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The Danish national pavilion designed by Bjarke Ingels Group showcases sustainability and energy solutions along with architecture and design.

The pavilion's centerpiece is The Little Mermaid, marking the first time that the iconic statue has left Copenhagen. The Little Mermaid is displayed in the center of an artificial pond within the Danish building. The original plans for the exhibit called for seawater from Copenhagen's harbor to be transported, but that idea was dropped because the water would be rotten when it got to Shanghai because of the long trip and it would therefore not be the same fresh water as it is in Copenhagen. The meaning of transporting the seawater with the statue was to give an authentic experience to spectators. The pavilion and Little Mermaid statue were unveiled on 25 April 2010, accompanied by a performance by singer Thomas Helmig, who performed a song called Swim, written expressly for the statue's debut. Denmark's Tax Minister Troels Lund Poulsen also delivered a speech to mark the opening of the pavilion. According to the official site on September 12, 2010 the pavilion welcomed its 4 millionth visitor.

The city of Odense, the birth city of Hans Christian Andersen, also has an exhibition independent from the national pavilions. The Odense exhibition is called Spinning Wheels, showcasing the city as a bike friendly destination.

The pavilion is designed as a traffic loop created by the motion of city bikes and pedestrians tied in a knot. Over 300 free city bikes located upon the roofscape, offer the visitors a chance to experience the Danish urban lifestyle which includes biking everywhere. The loops are connected in two places. Coming from the inside, the visitors can move out onto the roof, pick up a bike and re‐visit the exhibition by bike as the outdoor cycle path slips into the interior and runs along the entire exhibition before exiting onto the EXPO grounds. The sequence of events at the exhibition takes place between two parallel facades – the internal and external. The internal is closed and contains different functions of the pavilion. The width varies and is defined by the programme of the inner space. The pavilion’s external façade is made of perforated steel. In the evening time, the façade becomes a sequenced instrument of interactive light illuminating the passers‐by.

The exhibition can be experienced in two speeds, as a calm stroll with time to absorb the surroundings and as a dynamic bicycle trip, where the city and city life rush past. Like a Danish city, the Danish pavilion is best experienced on foot and by bike. This way, the pavilion’s theme Welfairytales (Welfare + Fairytales) re‐launches the bicycle in Shanghai as a symbol of lifestyle and sustainable urban development. When the Expo closes, the pavilion can be moved to another site in Shanghai and could function as a transfer point for Shanghai’s new city bikes.

The pavilion is a monolithic structure in white painted steel which keeps it cool during the Shanghai summer sun due to its heat‐reflecting characteristics. The roof is covered with a light blue surfacing texture, known from Danish cycle paths. Inside, the floor is covered with light epoxy and also features the blue cycle path where the bikes pass through the building. The steel of the facade is perforated in a pattern that reflects the actual structural stresses that the pavilion is experiencing making it a 1:1 stress test. The blue cycle path and white concrete surfaces will further define the arrival and exit areas.

Other Information

• Owner : EBST
• City: Shanghai
• Country : People's Republic of China
• Completed : 2010
• Size : 3000m2
• Architect : BIG
• Creative Director : Bjarke Ingels
• Collaborators : 2+1, Arup AGU, Arup Shanghai, Tongji Design Institute, Ai Wei Wei, Jeppe Hein, Martin De Thurah
• Partner-in-Chief : Finn Norkjaer
• Team : Tobias Hjortdahl, Jan Magasanik, Claus Tversted, Henrick Poulsen, Niels Lund Petersen, Kamil Szoltysek, Sonja Reisinger, Anders Ulsted, Jan Borgstrom, Pauline Lavie, Teis Draiby, Daniel Sundlin, Line Gericke, Armen Menendian, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Martin W. Mortensen, Kenneth Sorensen, Jesper Larsen, Anders Tversted

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