Shanghai World Expo will be the most spectacular and important event of its type. It is an Expo for the 21st Century and the UK have designed and built a Pavilion that reflects the splendour of the Expo2010. Pavilion is a striking, visual demonstration of the UK as a creative and innovative nation; exactly as Crystal Palace was in the very first Expo in London in 1851.

Developed by one of the UK’s leading creative talents, Thomas Heatherwick, the centrepiece of the UK pavilion is a six storey high object formed from some 60,000 slender transparent rods, which extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of the 7.5m long rods act like fibre-optic filaments, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, thereby creating a contemplative awe-inspiring space. At night, light sources at the interior end of each rod allow the whole structure to glow. The pavilion sits on a landscape looking like paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site. Mor images after the jump.