Expo 2010

The German contribution to EXPO 2010 stands under the motto balancity – a city in balance between regeneration and preservation, innovation and tradition, urbanity and nature, community and individual development, work and leisure, globalisation and national identity. This core idea can be found throughout the German Pavilion and is made tangible for the visitor. Balancity, a word that has been coined from the words “balance” and “city”, takes up EXPO’s theme of a “Better City, Better Life”.
A walk through the German Pavilion is a journey through balancity. The visitor walks through typical city rooms: rooms for working and thinking, rooms for leisure and recuperation, rooms for living and places for culture and community. Shelf-like structures reaching as far as the ceiling and filled with familiar inventions and design products intended to help improve city life await the visitor in the “Depot” showroom. The diversity of German design and engineering achievements is presented. Also in the “Depot”: a washing area from the PuraVida range that bathroom manufacturer, Duravit, headquartered in Hornberg in the Black Forest, launched on the market in March of this year. The washing area comprises a 70 cm wide ceramic console basin that rests on a deep-red console and that is supplemented with a drawer element and towel rail.
 
“I feel that, in future, there will be a need for new forms, new emotions, everything will be richer, more cheerful and livelier”, reports PuraVida designer Tom Schönherr. When designing this range, he and his team, Phoenix Design, thus focussed on emotional strength and gave the products a more relaxed and feminine aspect. The Design-Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen distinguished the entire PuraVida bathroom range with the red dot award. The PuraVida range has also been nominated for the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany 2010.
Visitors to Expo will also find Duravit bathroom design in the German Pavilion’s sanitary rooms, both in the public and the staff areas. In addition to the Vero range, washbasins, WCs and urinals from the Starck 1 and Starck 3 ranges are also fitted – bathroom design developed by the German manufacturer in collaboration with Philippe Starck.
 
The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is in charge of the German Pavilion. It has commissioned Koelnmesse International GmbH to organise and run the Pavilion. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Pavillon Shanghai (ARGE) is responsible for realising the German Pavilion. It consists of the companies Schmidhuber + Kaindl, Milla und Partner and NÜSSLI (Deutschland). Schmidhuber + Kaindl is responsible for architecture and general planning, Milla und Partner of Stuttgart for the exhibition and media design and NÜSSLi (Germany) GmbH for the construction work and project management.