27 July 2005
Expo pavilion design award recognises NZ creativity
New Zealand’s pavilion at the 2005 Aichi World Expo in Japan has been chosen by the Expo organisers as one of the top
three in the “single pavilion” category, and one of the top 12 overall out of more 130 national pavilions.
The award recognises the successful collaboration of some of New Zealand’s most highly creative firms and individuals in
a team put together by Wellington exhibition designers Story! Inc, whose work includes the internationally acclaimed
Lord of the Rings Exhibition for Te Papa.
“Cross-pollination of ideas is a growing trend in New Zealand’s design and technology industries and the Expo pavilion
provides an opportunity to communicate this on the international stage,” said Story! Inc Director, James McLean.
The pavilion was commissioned by the New Zealand Government, under the guidance of a committee including representatives
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Tourism New Zealand, Creative New Zealand and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and
Trade. Its aim is to provide international visitors – up to 25,000 a day – with an experience to remember, encouraging
trade and tourism.
Warren and Mahoney, one of New Zealand’s leading architectural firms, were the pavilion architects.
The overarching 2005 Expo theme is “Nature’s Wisdom”. Warren and Mahoney’s sustainable design specialist, Graeme Finlay,
said this underlines the growing global awareness of the social and commercial importance of sustainable development.
“The New Zealand Pavilion doesn’t only tell the story of New Zealand’s innovative creativity and technological spirit.
It is, itself, is a great collaborative example of precisely this,” he said.
The team included exhibition designers and fabricators, film makers, specialist effects designers, lighting designers,
artists, sculptors and engineers.
“There are inevitable difficulties in exporting an exhibition and building a building abroad – particularly in a
regulation-intensive country like Japan,” said Finlay.
“If you take a team of opinionated artists and creatives, and a squad of interpreters and translators doing their best
to make two cultures understand each other, and add to this the intrinsic difficulty of exporting an exhibition and
building abroad in a regulation-intensive country, you have a recipe for many confusing, challenging and stimulating
hours,” said Finlay.
NZ Pavilion at Aichi Expo, 2005
About the pavilion
The outside of the pavilion advertises the exhibition’s theme, “new sea land people”, which is picked up again as
visitors enter pavilion. Dominating the ellipse-shaped interior is a large sculptural cloud made of backlit Dacron. From
it emerges a rain fountain, which falls onto a large, touchable pounamu boulder, one of the highlights of the exhibition
for many of the Japanese visitors.
On one wall of the ellipse is a very wide screen, on which is projected a looped video – a swooping 6 minute flyover of
New Zealand, seen from the point of view of a “spirit-bird”. On the way out of the pavilion, visitors can enter a
smaller, circular room in which there are five big multi-user touch screens which they can interrogate to learn a little
more about New Zealand.
The design brief called for two main areas with different functions – a public exhibition space, and a VIP facility.
Despite the enormous visitor numbers to the public area, the VIP area may end up giving more direct benefit for New
Zealand.
It offers a space for New Zealand politicians, exporters, inventors and business people to meet with their Japanese
counterparts to develop links between the countries.
To do this successfully required not only a bar area and a meeting/lounge room, but also a full commercial kitchen
facility able to produce silver-service dining as well as more relaxed daily offerings. These facilities have proved so
popular that when available the facility is now being booked by Japanese multinationals such as Toyota.
In addition to these core requirements, the building also houses back-up facilities such as offices, storage areas, a
staff relaxation area and shower/changing facilities for kapa haka performers (who perform up to 7 times a day).
The Pavilion has recently won an award in the Japan Display Design Awards held by the Japan Display Design Association.
Designing, producing content and fitting out the pavilion: who did what?
Client New Zealand Government: Commissioner-General, Phillip Gibson Lead Agency: NZTE; Project Manager, Mike Pattison
Other stakeholders/contributors: Tourism NZ, Creative NZ, MFAT
Main Contractor: Design and Build and Content Story! Inc Producer/writer: James McLean Overall designer/interior
designer: Dean Cato Film producer/director: Steve La Hood
Project Manager Carson Group Project Manager: Alice Taylor
Architects Warren+Mahoney Architecture Architect: Graeme Finlay
Electrical and Structural Engineers Beca (Christchurch) Engineer: Phillip Gillon
Audio Visual and Interactive Production Oktobor Ltd Producer: Martin O’Sullivan Production manager/image researcher:
Roxane Gajadhar Designer: Matt Trott
Interactive Technical Design HIT Lab NZ Ltd Interactive project manager: Richard Bishop
Lighting, Audio and Technical Installation Marc Simpson Lighting Lighting design: Marc Simpson Technical installation:
Neil Bryce and Michael Leger
Installation/Fabrication Ian Anderson Design, Wellington
Onsite construction Murayama Ltd Project Director: Sadamoto Chida
Pounamu Owned and lent by Maika Mason and family
Sculpture Windgrass by Kon Dimopolous
ENDS