The exterior of Swiss Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo on May 3, 2010. The structure of the building has a roof with vast plantation and supported by two cylindrical columns. [China.org.cn / Xu Lin]

Switzerland was the first country to present the concept for its Pavilion to the public in Shanghai. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland, is responsible for the official Swiss Pavilion project. The pavilion is built over an area of 4000 m2. And the theme of the Swiss pavilion is Rural-urban interaction, the interaction between the city and the countryside.

"There are five sub themes of the expo under the main theme "Better city, better life", and some of those are about innovation, technology and we knew that many people will follow those things and that's why we have chosen something else that is the Interactions between urban and rural areas. We actually wanted to be unique," Manuel Salchli told China.org.cn, Deputy Commissioner General, Swiss Pavilion.

So many people are moving, from the city to the countryside on the weekends or on holidays, also people are moving from the countryside to the city for work and there are many facts related to it, said Manuel Salchli. "That is people need to take care of the water quality, they have to control the air pollution, they have to have a good projection about these traffic. This is how we show sustainable development," he explained.

The Swiss Pavilion has 4000m2 of area, but only one cylinder is concrete building and the rest of the area is open. Natural cooling, shade and wind, that means we don't need to use air conditioning or energy to light it up for all the day and night. The pavilion has façade that is equipped with 10000 solar cells, they do not power the pavilion but they show how much solar energy there is, by blinking lights. They remind people that they can use this solar energy for their daily life. "Unfortunately we are here only for six months and that's why we are not using the solar panels, because that is a huge investment and need infrastructure. In Switzerland we are very motivated and aware about the environment protection," said Manuel Salchli.

"We have chosen to not to have multimedia items and we didn't want to depend on technology to exhibit ourselves. We only have a big projection screen to show movie," said the Deputy Commissioner General, "We have binoculars to show 3d pictures, which have been known for 100s of years. It was our target again to differentiate from the other countries and to not to follow the technology trend."

Related

• The roof of Swiss Pavilion - a rural-urban meeting point
• Swiss Pavilion: exemplary model of rural-urban connection
• Swiss Pavilion's exhibits in place
• China Pavilion on hiatus after Expo
• Traditional Libyan dance show at World Expo
• Children's short videos on display at Expo

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