Cities can be great places to live, as long as there's balance in diversity instead of uniformity and monotony. It's all about equilibrium and harmony.

That's the idea of "Balancity," the Germany Pavilion unveiled last week for World Expo 2010 Shanghai.

The 6,000-square-meter pavilion, Germany's largest-ever at an Expo, showcases German urban life and how German design and products can help solve urbanization problems. It's Germany's contribution to the Expo theme "Better City, Better Life."

The Balancity has a feeling of light, with three exhibition areas that seem to float within the airy structure, and an interactive Energy Source.

The pavilion will demonstrate the importance of balance between modernization and preservation, innovation and tradition, community and the individual, work and leisure, and between globalization and national identity.

The German government will invest 30 million euros (US$47.34 million), and some German companies will also contribute, said Dietmar Schmitz, commissioner-general of the German Section in the Expo.

Pavilion architect Lennart Wiechell said the highlight of the pavilion is a cone-shaped structure that can accommodate 750 visitors spread out along a spiral-shaped gallery. In the center of the cone is a 1-ton metal sphere, 3 meters in diameter and covered with 30,000 LEDs displaying a kaleidoscope of images during a five-minute show.

To begin the show, spectators must shout and move, according to the directions of virtual guides. The image display will respond to movement and sound. The more active people are, the more energy they create, the more the sphere will react.

"Each individual will help generate the city's energy," the German organizers said. "The performance will show visitors to the German pavilion that, together they can make things happen."

Germany's federal states and regions will showcase their urban innovations. Hamburg's HafenCity, for example, is a pioneering urban development project that preserves the old and the new, giving old urban districts a new function and enhanced quality of life.

The Invention Archives and Innovation Factory will offer new German-designed products and edge-cutting inventions. Visitors can experience innovative fabrics and materials in the Materials Garden.

Of course, there will be German opera. And quiet garden spots for rest.

Around 9 million visitors are expected during the Expo period, around 50,000 per day.

"We want to offer visitors, most of whom will be Chinese, an appealing, experience-oriented concept," said Schmitz. "Through Balancity we will be able to show that cities can be good places to live if there is balanced diversity rather than uniformity and monotony."

Construction will begin in a few months and is expected to be complete in April 2010.

(Shanghai Daily March 11, 2009)