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Mexican Pavilion
Title: Mexican Pavilion at Universal Expo 2010 Shanghai
Theme: “Living Better”
Location: Expo showground, American pavilions area, zone C, number 8
Area: 4,000 square meters
Dimensions: 80 m long x 50 m wide
Credits:
Architect Juan Carlos González Vidals
Architect Israel Álvarez Matamoros
Architect Moritz Melchert
Architect Mariana Tello Rodríguez
Architect Edgar Octavio Ramírez Corrales
Architect Mónica Orozco
With an area of 4,000 square meters and the theme “Living Better”, Mexico’s pavilion will open its doors to all visitors. Thanks to its central location within the set of American pavilions and the great connection and relationship with the activities plaza to one side of it, the Mexican pavilion will be seen from afar and its bright colors will attract visitors’ attention.
The body of the pavilion is defined by a slope that turns into a great plaza and invites people to discover it, thus favoring the public space as a gesture of urbanization within the fair.
The physical space divided into three levels represents in turn three different moments of our country’s cities. The past in the basement of the pavilion, present-day Mexico at the access level and the future on the platform of the slope. This great plaza is the heart of the Mexican pavilion. It is the representation of a kite forest and our proposal for the future. The natural grass shows the concern for the recovery of green areas in cities and invites people to carry out different activities, from reading a book, to having a picnic or simply resting in the shade.
Kites are an element of union between Mexican and Chinese cultures. Their name in Náhuatl, papalotl, means butterfly and represents flight. The proposal is to look to the future with spaces specifically intended, thought out and planned for leisure and the recovery of parks and green areas, where new generations can recognize themselves within a city in which one can live better.
Inside the pavilion, people can visit the restaurant, which is a wide and attractive space that will offer the most representative dishes of Mexican cuisine. Mexico’s Council for Tourist Promotion has a 62 m2 area assigned, in which it will set up a stand that will showcase Mexico’s most attractive tourist destinations. This stand will be located at the entrance to the pavilion, and the store will be located at the exit, where it will sell traditional Mexican items.
The Business Center and a multiple-use hall for temporary exhibitions will be found on one of the sides of the pavilion.
