Norway Pavilion

The number of pavilions created especially for Shanghai World Expo 2010 that incorporated architectural fabric was impressive. A good third of the country venues incorporated textiles in some form or another, including Norway’s. “Norway powered by Nature” consisted of 15 “trees” constructed from laminated wood and bamboo (a new product developed in China called “GluBam®”) with tensioned fabric roofs to provide shade to suggest a Norwegian forest. Each tree had four “branches,” a “trunk” and “roots.” Each tree functioned as construction, infrastructure, furniture, exhibition, playground and information display.

As the exposition had a limited life span, the Norway trees were designed for disassembly at the show’s close and shipped to other locations to serve as a shade structure for a park, playground or social gathering place.