Welfairy Tales

The Danish pavilion at EXPO 2010 is called Welfairytales. In an exciting and interactive way, it presents our country using elements that Denmark and China have in common.

With Welfairytales, we want to show that welfare is not just about wealth. It is the opportunity to live a life that is humanly as well as environmentally coherent.

A Welfairytale is when lifestyle, consumption and growth go hand in hand with sustainability and social consideration. Welfairytales are stories about what we are good at in Denmark, namely to act holistically with an eye for both the human factor and the global implications.

Welfairytales is more than a traditional exhibition pavilion. It is an opportunity to try out Danish city life. You can jump on a city bike, meet the Danes, their lives and dreams. You can let the children loose on the nature playground. You can enjoy an organic picnic and dip your toes in the water by the Little Mermaid.

Welfairytales is an invitation to take part in a new fairytale. A fairytale about quality of life and how to design cities where human well-being and a better environment are two sides of the same coin.

The real deal

The Danish pavilion will give visitors the experience of what it is really like in Danish cities. Because, something you have tried yourself is much more memorable than something you have just seen on display.

As it is impossible to build an entire Danish city in Shanghai, the pavilion will give visitors the opportunity to try some of the best aspects of Danish city life themselves. You can ride around the pavilion by city bike, visit a great playground or have an organic picnic in the roof garden.

The winning project depicts the Little Mermaid from the harbour of Copenhagen sitting in a harbour pool at the centre of the pavilion. The winning team's idea is to transport the mermaid from Copenhagen to Shanghai. This will be a gesture of cultural generosity and also an invitation to a cultural dialogue between Denmark and China. While the mermaid is in Shanghai her place in Copenhagen will be replaced by sculptures created by Chinese artists.

Experience Denmark

Like a Danish city, the Danish pavilion is best experienced on foot and by bike. The pavilion is designed as a traffic centre for city bikes and pedestrians.

The pavilion consists of two orbits – an outdoor and an indoor – which are united in one coherent story. The outdoor orbit connects the pavilion to the Expo area's elevated deck and constitutes a Danish cycle path, a roof park with a nature playground and parking for bicycles. The indoor orbit connects to the Expo area's ground plan and houses the exhibition, conference rooms and workplaces.

The loops are connected in two places. Coming from the inside, the visitors can move out onto the roof, pick up a bike and re-visit the exhibition by bike as the outdoor cycle path becomes an indoor cycle path that runs through part of the exhibition.

The exhibition can be experienced in two speeds, as a calm stroll with time to absorb the surroundings and as a dynamic bicycle trip, where the city and city life rush past.

Welfairytales re-launches the bicycle in Shanghai as a symbol of lifestyle and sustainable urban development. When Expo closes, the pavilion can be moved to another site in Shanghai and could function as a transfer point for Shanghai's new city bikes.

Materials, construction and landscape

The pavilion is a monolithic structure in white painted steel. The white facade gives the pavilion a characteristic maritime look that reflects the Danish maritime tradition. The white color also helps to keep the pavilion cool because of its heat-reflecting characteristics.

The roof is covered with a light blue artificial material, known from Danish cycle paths. Inside, the floor is covered with light epoxy and also features the blue cycle path where the bikes pass through the building.

The steel of the facade is perforated in a pattern that creates the silhouette of a Danish metropolis. From the outside, the pavilion's inner life will shine through in the shape of the silhouettes of cyclists and pedestrians as they pass by.

The pavilion will be constructed on a shipyard and the high degree of prefabrication enables simple transport, a swift assembly process on site as well as rational and effective dismantling and relocation.

The pavilion ground will be constructed as a slightly elevated lawn for picnicking on the grass under shady Weeping Willows.

The blue cycle path and white concrete surfaces will define the arrival and exit areas.

The living fairytale book

The pavilion exhibition is an unfolded living fairytale book. The fairytale book is an interactive picture book, which invites the audience to contribute with their own tales and thereby create a dialogue between Danish and Chinese ideas about good city life.

The living fairytale book has three chapters:

Tales of how we live

Tales of Danish city life where sustainability is a lifestyle choice.

Tales of what we love

Tales of what we Danes love most in our cities.

Tales of where we're going

Tales of Danish technologies and solutions that can improve life in the cities of tomorrow.

(www.expo2010china.com)