New Materials in the Spotlight

By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

THE World Expo has always been a showcase for new materials and Shanghai this year is no exception, with the façades of many pavilions using new materials that are beautiful, unique, and, most importantly, eco-friendly and energy-saving.

Spanish Pavilion: Wickerwork Replaces Concrete

The Spanish Pavilion under construction, April 8, 2010.            Yu Xiangjun

For many people, buildings mean steel frames and concrete, but the Spanish Pavilion, one of the largest at the Shanghai Expo, confounds this notion.

Inside the huge wickerwork “basket,” General Commissioner Maria Tena is hugging goodbye to Meng Jinghui, the Chinese avant-garde stage director of the Spanish classic Don Quixote. Maria has not had a good night’s sleep since the pavilion opened and nearly nodded off standing by the Huangpu River. But it was all worthwhile – so far there have been three million visits to her pavilion. And what makes her proudest of all is that her pavilion has become the landmark structure of the European zone.

Distinguished by its creative use of wickerwork, the Spanish Pavilion has been acclaimed a “pioneering undertaking in architecture,” and is attracting many specialists as well as regular visitors. The queue of visitors at the bus stop in front of the pavilion is getting longer and longer, spreading like rattan vines.

Galla from Barcelona knew the material could be used to make chairs and soles for footwear, and she used to carry a wickerwork basket when going mushroom picking as a child. But it was only when she came to work here that she learned of its usefulness in construction.

“Rattan and willow cane are renewable and environmentally friendly materials, and absolutely in tune with the idea of ‘Better City, Better Life’– the Expo theme.” Maria is proud of how natural the “dressing” of her pavilion is, pointing out, “Wickerwork can create dappled shade. The pavilion looks like a sleeping dragon, or according to some, a forest or a mountain. All in all, it represents many elements of nature.

“In a stone, concrete or steel-frame building, you can’t sense the outside world, but here you are at one with nature,” says Maria, pointing at the sunshine streaming through the wicker. “Look, you and nature are one.”

All the doors and floors of the pavilion are made of compressed chipped bamboo, bringing the natural quality of the exterior into the interior as well.

Although the finished job looks very simple, adapting the materials to the vast dimensions involved was a major and time-consuming operation. First the cane underwent a 10-step process, including sterilizing, drying, shaping, painting, weaving, coating with fire retardant and with tong wood oil. Every element had to be woven to a different angle and decorative pattern according to its ultimate location in the building. The resulting wickerwork then underwent high-temperature steaming, to prevent deformation and mold development.

“Wickerwork is in common use in daily life in both China and Spain, for example as cradles and cane chairs. These living symbols connect the two countries,” Maria smiles, “which is what we want to convey to visitors.”

The 8,500 pieces of external wicker cladding weigh around 80 tons. Each one was hand woven in a small town in Bo-xing County, Shandong Province, a town full of expert weavers with a tradition of wicker weaving dating back over 800 years.

Finnish Pavilion: Walls of Paper and Plastic

Installing the recyclable shingles on the exterior of the Finnish pavilion April 7, 2010.                                                              Yu Xiangjun

The “Giant’s Kettle” design of the Finnish Pavilion brings welcome relief from the broiling summer heat, lavishing cool and tranquility on those who step inside. Its exterior walls are formed from 25,000 shingles of composite board, arranged to overlap like the scales of a fish. The 18 tons of shingles are made of waste paper and plastic, and are totally recyclable.

“In Finland, every one of us cares about the environment, so whenever we see a new idea such as the ‘Giant’s Kettle’ for the first time we all feel happy,” says pavilion docent Antti Saarilahti, with evident pride.

Every “scale” is about 20cm long and is secured with three screws. The job of fixing the scales called for dozens of workers’ three weeks of labor, and over 70,000 screws.

The back of stickers and double-sided adhesive tapes used to be casually jettisoned until the Finnish paper company UPM ProFi came up with the brilliant idea of recycling them into building materials. There is a box containing such waste on the second floor of the pavilion. “Paper and water are not a good combination,” says Antti, “but when plastic is mixed in, the function of paper is greatly improved.”

The paper-plastic composite, unveiled at the Finnish Pavilion, has attracted great interest. Not only is it completely made from waste materials, it is also waterproof and “typhoon-resistant.”

Finland’s paper industry is highly developed; paper is used to make many things and the Finns are masters of the art. Cellphone maker Nokia may now be Finland’s economic giant, but the paper industry is still hugely important to the national economy.

Many of the exhibits are also made from recycled paper. Touch the K-chair sofa, for example, and you would never know it is made of waste paper. Then there is the chef’s chopping board which is made by the company Oras from compressed recycled plastic. It is very easy to keep looking like new. “If the surface gets scratched, all you need to do is rub it with sandpaper, just as you would with wood.”

Some Finnish paper companies have set up factories in China. Will paper production be a trend for furniture and building materials in the future? Check out this pavilion and you will have your answer.

In Finland, Antti doesn’t have his own house. “If I did, I would fill it with attractive and affordable furniture like this.” He is fond of commenting when showing people around, “Our walling is a model product for paper recycling. There is nothing else like it in the Expo zone.”

The pavilion is constructed according to standards for permanent structures, so after the Expo, the whole structure will probably be sold off intact.

Vanke Pavilion: Straw Stacks

The way the Vanke Pavilion came into being was rather unexpected. While the designer was fiddling with some paper cups, a bold idea struck him – why not have a cup-shape building? So the seven-cup building came into being. Scaled up, they looked like grain stacks in the countryside, so the designer set about increasing the similarity. In the end, straw was used to produce the 300,000 elements for the external cladding.

The “straw boards” were produced in the Netherlands and air freighted to Shanghai to make their debut in China as a building material. “Had it not been used, the straw would have been burned, which would be consuming rather than utilizing a resource,” explains Hong Yuchen, a student at Shanghai International Studies University, working as a volunteer in the Vanke Pavilion.

Compressed straw boards are teh main cladding material for the Vanke Pavilion.                       CFP

The Vanke Pavilion is the only one built by a private Chinese company. The real-estate developer is well known for its environmental protection concerns, and its chairman, Wang Shi, went to Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) to collect trash left by visitors. The straw wall perfectly reflects Wang’s ideals – no chemicals, entirely natural, no need for ventilating after chemical paint.

Some people have raised questions about straw’s ability to resist damp and fire. The assurance is that, after undergoing high-temperature, high-pressure and other processes, the Vanke straw is not only fire-resistant, it is even more damp-resistant than normal timber.

The first time she saw the Vanke Pavilion, it did not seem like a built structure to Hong Yuchen. “Structures are all man-made, in some sense against nature, but this place seems to blend in very harmoniously,” she observes. Pointing to a forest of highrises in the distance, “ They look very modern, but very unnatural.”

Indeed, as you enter the pavilion, you breathe in the smell of wheat, and you seem to be in the countryside, especially if a breeze blows in. “The seven ‘cups’ are arranged very precisely – one up and one upside down. This layout maximizes the use of space and allows the wind to go through smoothly. That’s Shanghai-style ventilation,” says Hong.

Many visitors share her high opinion and foreign architects have shown great interest. “They all say ‘Fantastic! Unbelievable!’ Because it’s natural.”

Late in the afternoon, the sinking sun casts its slanting rays on the yellow straw walls. This is Hong Yuchen’s favorite time of day. “Very mellow, very beautiful,” she says.

But some people have raised questions about staw’s ability to resist damp and fire. The assurance is that, after undergoing high-temperature, high-pressure and other processes, the Vanke straw is not only fire-resistant, it is even more damp-resistant than normal timber.

Vanke’s building concept is “celebrating life through structures.” Even the tables in the pavilion are made of straw, and under a coat of paint, they look no different from wooden tables.

More than 7,000 people come to see the big straw stacks every day, and the numbers continue to increase. The stacks can be dismantled, so once Expo is over, Vanke will re-erect the pavilion elsewhere, adding a garden or museum, with a view to spreading the environmental message to more people. Many local leaders have expressed the desire to give the pavilion a home.