Australian Expo Pavilion

The Australian Pavilion at the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai is a representational object and experiential showcase. National pavilions at contemporary international forums like this operate as both. The architectural expression of the building responds to the eccentricities of a symbolic and crowd-pleasing brief.

Inside the pavilion, visitors engage with exhibitions that speak of Australian life. The first impression of the building from the outside is that it looks very Australian. There is a striking resemblance to Uluru. It is like a great big piece of the Australian landscape transplanted in the fairgrounds. The more subtle material and formal associations are with the colours and shapes of the outback Australian landscape. This is most striking in the building’s silhouette against the sky. The curvaceous skin enfolding the bulging monolith is pierced and skewered by glazed circulation tubes. In this shape the weathered steel cladding exhibits a plasticity that defies its strength. This is a building that is about and from Australia.

– Jury citation