The theme pavilion plan of Expo 2010 Shanghai China came into being after experiencing a logical reasoning from simple to complex and then from complex to simple. It was just like a “path to explore the city” regarding the birth of the theme, the theme development, and the design of the theme pavilion.

Five Concepts

The theme of Expo 2010 Shanghai China is “Better City, Better Life”, aiming to convey that people, urban and the earth are three interlinked organic systems which are increasingly forming an integral whole.

How to exhibit this theme cost a lot of brainstorming of the organizers.

After several in-depth theme discussions, the organizers put forward 5 concepts: “Urban Dwellers”, “Urban Beings”, “Urban Planets”, “Urban Footprints” and “Urban Dreams”, to establish a themed structure of Expo 2010.

Five Theme Pavilions

Five theme pavilions are set up in Expo 2010, i.e. “The Urban Dwellers Pavilion”, “The Urban Beings Pavilion”, “The Urban Planets Pavilion”, “The Urban Footprints Pavilion” and “The Urban Dreams Pavilion”, which are in accordance with the 5 themes of “Urban Dwellers”, “Urban Beings”, “Urban Planets”, “Urban Footprints” and “Urban Dreams” fully demonstrating the understanding and interpretation of “Better City, Better Life” by the organizers.

Five Attractions:

Each theme pavilion shows a distinct aspect of the city, with unique focal point.

● The Urban Dwellers Pavilion

Focal point: People inside and outside the city. People are the cells of a city, and are also the miniature of a city. As urbanization accelerates, cities pose tremendous impact even to people who live outside of the city. Human beings are increasingly becoming “The Urban Dwellers”.

● The Urban Beings Pavilion

Focal point: The city itself. The inside structure of the city is complicated, with all parts interlinked and coordinated. It resembles the characteristics and laws of organism.

● The Urban Planets Pavilion

Focal point: As the proportion of urban citizen in the whole population grows higher, the interaction among cities and between city and eco-environment will be tightened.

● The Urban Footprints Pavilion

Focal point: The experiences and wisdom of humankind in history process.

● The Urban Dreams Pavilion

Focal point: Outlook of a better city and a better life.

design team decided to tell the spectators “stories of families”, proceeding from realities by filming different urban families in different parts of the world into documentations, to reveal the demand and development of Urban Dwellers.

Herman said that they decided to “tell stories” as early as in the primary stage of their planning. “The Urban Dwellers Pavilion reflects urban citizens, so I think it would be interesting and of global vision to record people’s real lives”.

Small Families, Big World

Diversity is the most frequently used word of Herman. He emphasized that Urban Dwellers are diversified themselves. When they were selecting the families to be documented, they followed a diversified and interleaving principle.

Six families came from six cities of different continents, including Paris from Europe, St. Paul from South America, City of Phoenix from North America, Li Jiang from Asia, Melbourne from Oceania, and Ouagadougou from Africa.