Wisdom of the Montreal Best Practices Case

Montreal Case Pavilion

In writing this blog I would like to express my feelings of thankfulness to the sincere pavilion guides of the Montreal Case Pavilion which is located at the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) in Expo 2010 Shanghai. Montreal, a big city in Canada, hosted the world exposition in 1967. This year it participates in Expo 2010 by demonstrating its outstanding project in sustainable urban development. The project, namely Saint-Michel environmental complex, is Montreal's brilliant achievement in solving environmental problem for a site spoiled by industrial exploitation and later served as garbage landfills in a total years more than a century. In a rehabilitation plan in 1995, the Montreal's municipal government turned this limestone-quarry and landfill site into a large public park. The site's contaminated soil and residual materials were safely managed. The successful rehabilitation of the land has contributed to environmental improvement that brings better quality of city life to the citizens.

Exhibition hall

The story of the Saint-Michel environmental complex is presented with a multimedia projection on a screen which is composed of numerous movable blocks. The screen is set at a 45 degree angle to enhance a special visual effect. During the movie presentation, facets of blocks from the screen gently move up and down to give out a dynamic view. The movie takes visitors onto a vivid journey witnessing the marvelous transformation of a scrappy land into a spectacular complex. The multimedia hall at the Montreal Case Pavilion is not large, but the presentation is unique and outstanding. The design of the projection screen is creative and wonderful. It is impressive to see a screen in motion. How clever the Montrealers are.

David, a pavilion guide

David, who was one of the pavilion guides, gave us some useful and interesting information regarding the Saint-Michel environmental complex when we were waiting at the entrance of the multimedia hall. We were grateful to his kindness. The written explanation was indeed posted on the wall of the pavilion, but we had missed them. David told us that explanation would be given inside the hall from following weeks onwards. Upon our arrival at the Montreal Case Pavilion, there were only a few visitors. We waited for about 10 minutes to attend the movie presentation. The information given by David contributed to our enjoyment and profound understanding of the Saint-Michel story. Out of the multimedia hall after watching the show, we peeped through the tiny windows to find out the secrets behind the screen. There were a great number of metal rods moving up and down to support the movement of the screen blocks. Please refer to the video below. It was great that the organizer of the pavilion let us watch the back of the screen. Such arrangement stimulated our creative thinking.

Pavilion guides - Marie-Pierre (L), Claire (R)

In the final part of our touring at the Montreal Case Pavilion, we enjoyed chatting with two sweet girls who were also pavilion guides. In a friendly atmosphere, we learned more about Montreal. It was fantastic. By then, I felt that world expositions are international meeting points for global knowledge exchange. I noticed that there was another male pavilion guide giving information to the visitors in Mandarin. I was amazed to see a young Canadian speaking beautiful Mandarin. All of these pavilion guides make the exhibition become interactive and communicative. They have contributed to the promotion in building a good national image for their country. After I had got back to Hong Kong, I searched relevant information regarding the Montreal Case. The pavilion guides whom I met are among the 8 volunteers/ interns selected from 150 applicants to work for the Montreal Case Pavilion, and they are going back to Montreal on August 31, 2010 to continue their student life. There are more information about them from the website of Conseil jeunesse de Montreal (CJM Montreal Council). I saw their pictures and videos. However, I couldn't understand the content because the website is written in French.

With the kind permissions from the young pavilion guides of the Montreal Case Pavilion, I posted their photographs on my blog so as to keep this meaningful memory (See attached images). May I take this opportunity to say "Thank you" to all of them and wish them all the best in future.

Multimedia screen composing of numerous movable blocks

The secret behind the movable screen which is composed of numerous blocks.