World Expo '88's Australia Pavilion was a Joint Flagship Pavilion with the Queensland Pavilion, and despite early efforts to create a joint structure, in the end the two were quite different Pavilions in structure, although they were located side by side.
The Pavilion was easily recognizable for a number of reasons, first of all, it's roof was in the shape and colours of Australia's most famous natural landmark, Uluru, evocative of the soaring Australian outback, and in front of the exit and entrances of the Pavilion were some playful letters in large making up the word "Australia", by renowned Australian naive art artist, Ken Done.
These letters were later donated to Shaftesbury Citizenship Campus on Brisbane's northside, where they still greet motorists coming down the Bruce Highway. They were put up for sale a few years ago and Foundation Expo '88 offered to purchase them as a gift for South Bank Corporation, at the price they were gifted to the Campus, however this was turned down.
Outside the Pavilion was a collection of Aboriginal Australian art paintings, in a desert sand like open air atmosphere, and this theme of Aboriginal reconciliation was continued with the main show in the Pavilion - an innovative multimedia and live theatre presentation called the "Rainbow Serpent Theatre", where images were projected on to a false glass facade, and a real life Aboriginal actor would re-count the tale of the Rainbow Serpent in an outback desert fire night-time setting. Aboriginal images of the story would be projected on to the front glass facade, as the Aboriginal elder re-counted the dreamtime legend. In an age where many Pavilions are only concerned with multimedia projections, this element with the live theatre aspect was way ahead of it's time, and allowed the audience to engage with the performance.
There were then several supplementary displays outside the theatre, including a 'sport' robot called Blue, who was about 8ft high and who held several items of sporting equipment, and recited in robotic fashion various statistics about Australians and sport.
There was also the Rainbow Kaleidoscope, which projected in a colourful revolving fashion the colours and patterns of Australia's outback, rainforest, beaches and open spaces to a pretty musical theme.
And there were also displays suspended from the ceiling of numerous items used in Australian sport, such as a paraglider, and so on.
The Pavilion cost $18 million Australian dollars, and was widely regarded as one of the top 5 Pavilions.
Architecture - tick tick!
Australia at Seville 92
Australia at Expo 92 was a bit more expensive at some $35 million dollars and I think was the best Australia Pavilion of the four. It combined a ramp spiral walkway introducing Australian history and culture, around a several story rainforest natural-light atrium, replete with Queensland palm trees, butterflies, rainbow lorikeets, which then led to a large glass wall tropical aquarium, and a display of Argyle Diamonds and Jewellery, including the famous Argyle Diamond egg, like a large Faberge egg made of gold and diamonds - the most expensive item in the Pavilion.
This led then to a 1,000 seater theatre-in-the-round where a revolving interior screen featured on the top of the walls, first led into by a multimedia slide show, and then a 360 degree video on Australia. This was simply stunning. The exit led to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation-run Gift Shop.
Australia was also considered to be in the "Top 5".
Architecture - tick
Australia at Taejon 93
An international specialised Exposition, space was a priority at Taejon 93, and the Australia Pavilion used an innovative multimedia presentation consisting of hundreds of images - either on TV, projection or static media in a darkened space, which one travelled along a snake-like travelator for the duration of the Pavilion visit. This allowed a high number of people to visit per hour in a highly automated Pavilion experience - where one didn't have to walk at all!
Also in the "Top 5"
Architecture - n/a (pre-fabricated unit)
Australia at Shanghai 2010
This Pavilion once again turned to Uluru and the colours of the outback Australian desert for inspiration in it's architecture, with a red-iron steel clad exterior in the shape and curves of Uluru. The inside was similar to Seville - a curved ramp walkway that guided persons through the history and culture of Australia through a series of static and multimedia messages - and that led to a 1,000 seater theatre in the round - also like Seville - however in this case, the screens were in the centre of the theatre, six semi-circular panels that turned in tandem and rose up and down, revealing a large model sculpture in the centre of the stage that furthered the story.
The story centred around the dreams and aspirations of three Australian children, one caucasian, one aboriginal, and one Chinese, in an animated feature, and featured an inspiring sound track and innovative use of technology, not seen at a World Exposition before.
The Pavilion cost $AUD 83 million dollars. Also considered to be in the "Top 5".
Architecture - tick and a half
The Pavilion cost $AUD 83 million dollars. Also considered to be in the "Top 5".
Architecture - tick and a half
Criticism
Comparing with the very personable USA Pavilion, where it's bilingual Student Ambassadors were used to the max, I thought we could have got more leverage out of our bilingual Australian attendants, who were relegated, despite their impressive Mandarin skills, to saying nothing more than, "The next performance will start in 5 mins..." and "Wait here", where as the USA Pavilion Ambassadors were telling the audiences their name, where they came from, how long they've been in China, where they studied Chinese, how many people were in their family and how many pets they had (and their names) as well as making some local joke in Shanghainese.
And with each presentation in the USA Pavilion, the audience was introduced to a new Student Ambassador, so the audience actually felt as if they were getting a good cross-section of the American population.
Also, I was impressed in the USA Pavilion with the high profile representations by the Commissioner-General of the Pavilion, the Secretary of State, and the President - all saying "Ni Hao" and then welcoming them to the Pavilion - highlighting how seriously the highest elected officials in the USA take their representation at Shanghai.
Whereas, we had our first Chinese-speaking Prime Minister in Kevin Rudd, and there was no footage of him speaking Chinese at all! Only a static photograph of him on one wall speaking to a constituent. This could have been an opportunity to - through our attendants - and our Prime Minister - to build an image of Asia literacy - and China literacy - but we fell through. An opportunity lost.......
In a later blog - Australia at Expo 67 and Expo 70, where both Pavilions get 3 ticks for architecture!
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