Mexican architects SLOT won an international competition to design the Mexican Pavilion for the World Expo Shanghai 2010. The pavilion’s design is born from the idea of representing Mexico through its traditional elements which haven’t been exploited in these kinds of fairs. The proposal scheme is centered around the idea of creating a green space within the expo which at the same time represents our preoccupation to offer a better life standard for cities through the recovery of green areas rather than creating a protagonist building.
The Mexican pavilion is a volume defined by a talud (slope) which transforms itself into a plaza privileging public space as an urban gesture within the expo. Space is divided in three levels which represent three different moments of urban life in our country. The past is represented on the plinth, present time Mexico at the entrance level, and future on the platform.
The pavilion’s main feature lies within the design of the papalotes (kites), a word that comes from the Nahuatl papalotl which means butterfly, used as a cultural meeting point between mexican and chinese cultures. Our proposal is to look into a future with areas which are thought, destined and planned specifically for leisure, the recovery of parks and green areas, where new generations might meet in a city with a “better living”. More images and a video after the break.
