INDEX

HAPPY STREET By Tessa van Amelsvoort

So what is the World Expo? The World Expo was actually thought of by the French. Though the first exposition was held in London, England, in the Crystal Palace which was designed for this first edition of the World Expo. It originates from different national expositions of different countries. The event was supposed to show the new technological progresses of the year and the influences of these. Eventually, the first World Expo was such a success, it went beyond the expectations. People from all over the world were brought together to look at different products and expositions. The event grew to one of the biggest events for a country to present their pride and glory. A famous example of an exposition shown at the World Expo is the Eiffel Tower, which was such a success that the city decided not to remove it after the expo. Pavilions are one of the aspects that play a big part in this event, but are these temporary?

A good example is the World Expo of 2010 in Shanghai. The theme of that year’s exposition was called: Better City, Better Life. The area consisted of almost 5,5 square kilometers and China spend around 44 billion euros in improving the city. Improvements were made in several parts of infrastructure, for example the subways, to handle the increase in tourism in the city due to the World Expo. Around 180 countries participated in the exposition and most of these countries had their own pavilion, including the Netherlands as well.

“Better City, Better Life”

The Dutch pavilion was called Happy Street and designed by John Körmeling, who had studied architecture at the Technical University in Eindhoven. He was especially interested in ‘space’ and the different ways one can interpret and handle these. One of the subjects he was fascinated by was the growing problems of a car-oriented city and how city planning handled these problems. That is why he designed several different artistic solutions (with a lot of humour as well) to handle the shortage of parking spaces in cities, for example the ‘Drive-in wheel’ in Utrecht: a ferris wheel for cars. Eventually he designed Happy Street for the World Expo in 2010, which also won the Dutch Design Award in 2010. The design was a construction, that was fascinating on its own already, holding 450 meters of red street shaped like an 8, which is the lucky number in Chinese. When people walked over this street, they walked passed the history of Dutch architecture. It was hardly a building, more a 450 meters long red rollercoaster. From a Rietveld house to the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, everything that was considered to be iconic Dutch architecture was shown. The longer you look at the different buildings at Happy street, the more you recognize. Eventually there were several houses, creating a cozy street. A better city, a better life.

The longer you look at the different buildings at Happy Street, the more you recognize.

John Körmeling states that a Better City and a Better life begins with different functions, continuously connected with each other, creating a concept of a linear city. A good street needs to have a sign of life. Due to the limited area, an eight shaped construction was created, leading to a tourist attraction function as well. Happy Street could be an inspiration for how spaces are designed; continuously and connected with each other.

Eventually the pavilion had at least 8,5 million visitors and the Netherlands had shown a creative and innovative design. Even the last moments were utilized by visitors to see a last glimpse of the Dutch exposition. One may ask what happened with the pavilion after the World Expo. The design was not only funny looking, but also sustainable. It was earthquake proof and the design could be recycled. The construction could be cut into different parts and several cities already showed interest in buying a piece. However, the Netherlands did not react fast enough on these proposals. It is unclear what really happened to the pavilion eventually, but the pavilion was still standing years after the exposition. This is one of the many temporary pavilions designed for the World Expo which ended up being not so temporary at all.

1

Images: 1. Happy Street (Illustration by: Tessa van Amelsvoort) Sources: 1. Architectenweb. 2010. Doek valt voor Happy street op Expo. architectenweb.nl. 2. Vlaskamp, M. 2010. Een Hollandse Happy Street in Shanghai. 3. Wikipedia. John Körmeling, Expo 2010 and Wereldtentoonstelling. Wikipedia.com.