Innovation at the German Pavilion EXPO Shanghai

“Balancity” – the combination of balance and city – is the main theme of the German Pavilion at the EXPO in Shanghai. The pavilion strives to demonstrate Germany’s character as both traditional and innovative. Naturally, Ventuz found its rightful place in this quest!

The German Pavilion is planned and built by the Consortium German Pavilion Shanghai GbR. The Consortium consists of three companies: Schmidhuber + Kaindl is responsible for architecture, Milla & Partner for exhibition design and NUSSLI (Germany) for construction. Within this framework Milla und Partner has engaged the agency blaufisch with the creation of the content for two applications within the pavilion.

The German Pavilion guides the visitors through a model city, starting outside of town in the Landscape, approaching the city through the Urban Periphery, passing a Tunnel and then arriving at the Harbour. Through the Planning Office the visitors proceed to the Garden, the Depot (a place that shows exquisite design and engineering work), the Factory, the Park, the Studio, the City Square, the Forum, to finally arrive at the Energy Source, the heart of all urban activity.

Ventuz was used for installations within the Factory and the Planning Office areas.
 
 

The Factory

The Factory is dominated by the idea of constant movement. A conveyor belt above the visitors’ heads is continuously transporting objects through the room, but these objects are only sketches and outlines. Their full meaning can only be seen at the six scanner stations, each consisting of four 42 inch monitors. Whenever an object passes a station, the corresponding Ventuz-presentation is triggered via an OSC-command and then runs synchronously to the conveyor belt. “One of the reasons why we chose Ventuz was the changing speed of the conveyor belt”, says Ralf Spreng of blaufisch. “We needed something that could adapt to these conditions. Ventuz was the only solution that provided the necessary flexibility, since we can simply link the speed of the presentation to the data coming from the belt.”



Additionally, two of the scanner stations are interactive, giving the visitors the possibility to explore some information and details. The interaction is made possible by a motion tracking device which was developed by the Frauenhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut. Additionally, the hostesses at the Factory have the possibility to drive the interactive applications via an iPod Touch, offering the ability to answer spontaneously to any question a visitor might have.

The content of these applications consists of a combination of films, graphic animation, 3D animation, and animated text. “When it comes to performance, Ventuz was the best solution we could find”, claims Ralf Spreng, “and we found the production work to be very effective. We needed to do all the programming and logics long before we had any content. Ventuz allowed us to take these two steps independently from each other and bring them together at a later point. Also, the individual content items can be exchanged so easily in Ventuz, that we remained flexible throughout the whole production period.”


 

The Planning Office

The second application for which Ventuz is used is an interactive installation in the area of the Planning Office, where new and innovative ideas of urban living are introduced. By motion of the hand the visitor can browse through different stages of the development of the Gruenguertel, a park area in the city of Cologne. The interaction is provided by an ultrasound sensor.



The EXPO 2010 Shanghai will continue until October 31st. More than 4 million visitors are expected to visit the German Pavilion. We would like to thank blaufisch and the whole Consortium German Pavilion Shanghai for choosing Ventuz. We are proud to be a part of this amazing project!


Overall responsibility
German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology

Organisation and Operation
Koelnmesse International GmbH

Design, Planning and Realization
Consortium German Pavilion Shanghai GbR, comprising:
Architecture: Schmidhuber + Kaindl GmbH, Munich
Exhibition: Milla & Partner GmbH, Stuttgart
Construction: NUSSLI (Germany) GmbH, Roth

Ventuz applications realized by
blaufisch - medienprojekte GbR

Technical supplier
ict AG

More details: www.expo2010-germany.com