WORLD EXPOSITION, Shanghaï, CHINA (2010)
Specifier: MOSTRA / Paris, France
Installer: NEWMAT USA LTD. / W. Babylon, NY
Project: MOSTRA was awarded the design of the Paris Île de France Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghaï. Jean-Jacques Bravo, MOSTRA’s principal, approached Newmat to bring to life his design, which consists of a 4 meter x 80 meter long roller-coaster like structure with a continuous projected image of running water, representing the Seine, the famous river flowing through Paris.
Newmat’s solution was to 1) create a custom extrusion that could achieve the long complex curves while retaining structural integrity and create this huge free-standing structure with minimal vertical and horizontal deflection and 2) stretch one NewLight translucent membrane tailor-made for the complex shape onto which the running water image would be projected from either side of the membrane depending on its location to achieve this seamless image throughout the 80 m length.
The projection itself was designed and executed by ETC, the well-known world expert in this field, using a total of 35 projectors.
As you can see, the final result is spectacular and gives the illusion of a large flowing ribbon of water. In addition, images sometimes appear in part of the flowing water that depict the five themes of the pavilion: Bio Diversity, Culture / Quality of Life, City / Habitat, Mass Transit, and Urban Services.