‘PACIFIC ISLANDS PAVILION’

‘PACIFIC ISLANDS PAVILION’

Pacific Islands pavilion is the proposal to develop the Pacific Islands Pavilion at Expo Zaragoza 2008.

Zaragoza, Spain 2008.

The pavilion functions as an environmental and navigable attraction. The façade is an invitation to plunge into the ocean, reproduced on a curtain of translucent fringes gently swaying in the wind. Having crossed the threshold, visitors find themselves in a foyer where the five participating countries are located and where instructions are provided on how to tour the pavilion using a form of navigation called wayfinding, guided by the natural elements and typically used by the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands.

Visitors then proceed to a space that recreates the sea beneath a star-spangled sky. In the background, a great heavenly body alternates between the sun and the moon. The lighting reproduces night and day in a single space surrounded by a distant horizon that separates the sky and the sea. Inside, curtains with translucent fringes unite what the horizon separates, as in a damp oceanic atmosphere.

On the sea, five islands are enveloped by the seven-metre high curtains. A tactile element on the paving indicates how to reach them. The five sites can be perceived as islands, as a mass of luxuriant vegetation and as a group of rain cabins. On the perimeter walls hang a series of mirrors that multiply the firmament and the reflection of the sun on the translucent curtain fringes, while simultaneously creating the effect of a vast ocean dotted with islands.

The islands themselves are dedicated to some of the typical themes of the life and culture of the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands: kava, a drink associated with an ancestral ritual; the outrigger dugout canoe, which they have used to sail the Pacific from time immemorial; coral reefs; the tales, myths and legends that form the basis of their rich oral tradition; and some of the videos, posted on Youtube, of the inhabitants telling their stories today.

The walls of the pavilion exhibit a variety of examples related to the water culture of each of the participating countries: the volcanic crater on the island of Tofua in Tonga, an extraordinary natural container for collecting rainwater; the former Lake Siwi on the ashes of the volcano Mount Yasur in Vanuatu; the recent transfer of the capital of Palau to the island of Babeldaob, on the shores of Lake Ngardok; the fresh water ponds on the rice plantations in East Timor; and the tranquil waters of the Marovo Lagoon in the Solomon Islands, which as the breeding ground of five different languages illustrates the rich diversity of the Pacific Islands.

DESIGN TEAM

Sergio Álvarez architects as ZONA architects, in collaboration with Cesar Cabanas

NARRATIVE PROJECT

Jacobo Armero

CLIENT

Casa Asia / AECID / General Department for Foreign Policy for Asia and Pacific, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain

PHOTOGRAPHER

Pedro Albornoz

AWARDS

Gold metal prize, given by the BIE (Bureau International des Expositions), in the Pacific Islands Pavilion in the International Exhibition Expozaragoza 2008, Spain.