World Expo 2010 Shanghai China: Madrid Case Pavilion

In the Madrid Case Pavilion

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is one of the greenish cities in the world. Owning a case pavilion at the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) in Expo 2010 Shanghai, Madrid demonstrates an environmental friendly social housing project as developed by its municipal government for the low-income citizens. There are two parts in the exhibitions, namely the Bamboo House and Air Tree. The Bamboo House mainly serves for displays and exhibitions. The Air Tree provides visitors with a comfortable open area for a rest. The exhibition pathway begins at the top floor of the Bamboo House, and it is connected with an escalator from the ground level where visitors are waiting for admissions. There are separated entrances leading to the Spanish restaurant and souvenir shop. The entire building duplicates the design of the Madrid public housing with the application of ecological materials and installation of renewable energy resources. The outer layer of the House is encrusted with bamboo bark for the purpose of temperature control as well as noise insulation.

Bamboo House (L), Air Tree (R)

The Air Tree, which is adjacent to the Bamboo House, is a cylindrical structure covered all around with large movable window shades. During the day, shades are open to facilitate natural ventilation in the Air Tree. When shades are closed, they become the double-side projection screens for movies and light show performances in the evening. Wind wheels are equipped on the top of the structure, and there is a giant fan turning to ventilate the area under the Tree. Visitors enjoy listening to the lovely music while resting in a refreshing area. The Air Tree can also be served as a platform for a mini concert.

If you visit the Madrid Case Pavilion for the purpose of collecting a stamp, the Pavilion will not make you feel disappointed. A full collection of the stamps from the Madrid, Bilbao, and Barcelona Case Pavilions for your Expo passport will give you the priority to enter the Spain Pavilion through the fast access channel. If you are a fans of the Real Madrid Football Club, you will certainly get something that makes you feel excited.

A mini concert under the Air Tree at the Madrid Case Pavilion UBPA

A garden in UBPA

While hundreds of thousands of people were flooding into the Pudong region where national pavilions of Asia, Middle East, and Europe are located, we explored the peaceful side of the Shanghai World Exposition across the Huangpu River in the Puxi area. And we had achieved enjoying the leisure of the Expo 2010 without any crowds in the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA). The UBPA is an exhibition district for representative cities around the world to showcase their innovative practices in urbanization. The UBPA also acts as a platform to connect cities in sharing their experiences in urban construction and development. Various representative cases are shown via exhibitions, presentations, seminars, workshops, networks, display boards, events, and performances. Showcase portfolios demonstrate a remarkable range of implementations and solutions to improve the quality of city life. Sample displays include low-carbon city, eco-housing, eco-art, sustainable urbanization, utilization of culture heritage, and technological innovations in built environment, etc. Apparently, UBPA is a good place for learning rather than entertainment.

Eco Housing

The UBPA includes a number of case pavilions and four Cases Joint Pavilions. Please refer to the page end of the Site Maps and Pavilions to view a full list of the presenting city cases from various geographical regions. In the northern part of the UBPA, built cases are demonstrated in simulated urban blocks. There are Case Pavilions of Alsace, Chengdu, Hamburg, London, Macau, Madrid, Makkah, Ningbo, Odense, Rhone-Alpes, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Xian. All of these case pavilions are close to each other. Therefore, there is no need for visitors to walk a long distance under the strong sunshine from one pavilion to another. In the central and southern part of the UBPA, several presenting cases are sharing under a large Cases Joint Pavilion. The temperature of Shanghai was as high as 35 degree Celsius at the time of our visit. Fortunately, we escaped from the hot weather by staying indoors to see a great variety of exhibitions in the UBPA.

London low-carbon case pavilion

We enjoyed very much our touring in the UBPA. There were no crowds, and the environment was naturally refreshing. We went straight into almost every pavilion without lining up for admission. When we were seeing a queue of more than 15 people, we returned later to achieve a non-waiting admission. Comparing with our first visit experience to the UBPA in May, there were comparatively more people now in July. It is perhaps due to the fact that more people learn about the fast track system requirement in the visits of the UBPA.

We spent a whole day in the UBPA but still had not yet finished seeing the exhibitions in details. There were lots of information to feed our curious mind. Anyway, I had taken photographs on the display board information and would like to learn about them in the later days. Apart from the knowledge acquisition, we also enjoyed the delicious food in the UBPA. There are many restaurants serving gourmet food from various countries. The restaurants were not crowded at all. We took a Spanish dinner at the Madrid Case Pavilion. The food was absolutely gorgeous. After the dinner, we watched the spectacular lighting show which was run by the Rhone-Alpes Lighting Pavilion. And we watched the entertainment show run by the Bremen Town Musicians. What a wonderful relaxing time we had! If possible, we would like to visit the UBPA again. The UBPA is worth visiting.