Designing With Seeds of Life

If you had the chance this year to visit the Shanghai World Expo 2010, which ran from May 1st to October 31st, then you know that there were over 230 amazing exhibitions to visit. However, I bet that there was one showcase that left a definite impression: the UK Pavilion, also known as "The Seed Cathedral."


Designed by the popular British designer Thomas Heatherwick, this 20 meters (65.6 feet) high structure is made up of 60,000 slender rods that are each 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) long. In collaboration with the Kew Gardens and Millenium Seed Bank Project, each rod contains a seed (which can be viewed inside the Seed Cathedral) or two from a plant species. Visitors can walk around, inside the cathedral and observe the various seeds. This gigantic "dandelion," as it is aptly nicknamed by the Chinese, absorbs sunlight in order to illuminate the interior, and then when it is dark, the light saved up also lights up the outside of it, giving it a "glow."


When I had initially read about this, I was amazed at the design and architecture of this building because it looks so astounding and surreal. The fiber optic rods are all identical, bringing a continuity through repetition into the design. Inside the cathedral, it is dimly lit by the rods, which are everywhere, above and around, as if enveloping a person.


I am still not exactly sure how each rod is held up in place, but it is certainly an architectural and physical feat. It looks as if all the seed rods are growing out of a single point, and I think this is part of the message that Heatherwick is attempting to convey: that all living things on earth are connected and affected by each other. Each seed that is on display is a single, unique species of plant that one day could be extinct. Not only are the rods designed so that they appear to be pointing inward, towards a common origin, but they also point outward, signifying that this is not an issue that only concerns a few organizations, but it concerns people all around the world. I think that when people tour this structure they will get a sense of how people, too, are part of the cycle of life and their decisions can decide what happens to millions of other species.


"After the Expo, just as dandelion seeds are blown away and disperse on the breeze, the Seed Cathedral's 60,000 optic hairs, each one containing the huge potential of life, will be distributed across China and the UK to hundreds of schools as a special legacy of the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo." --Thomas Heatherwick


Photo Credits:
TreeHugger
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