Expo Zaragoza 2008 :: Pavilions

Thirst is designed as a prefabricated building using screw-assembled metal profiles to make disassembly and moving easy.

It is a circular building, with a diameter of 46.4m and a surface area of 1,647.5 m². It will be covered by inflatable units of which 77.5% will be made of ETFE.

The entire frame will support a layer of salt to be formed using a brine irrigation system controlled by a timer. This will control the thickness of the salt layer, ensure that the brine does not slide off the ETFE surface, ease water evaporation, and assist immediate salt adhesion.

The exhibition gives a new perspective to thirst by portraying it as progress and the driving force behind the development of extraordinary techniques, culture and knowledge. This is the storyline for this themed plaza, comprising five interconnected spaces in which the exhibition takes place. These spaces recreate a spaceship moving through the cosmos and enable visitors to apprehend the entire interior space as a great sky dome.

The architecture of the plaza is that of an enigmatic building. It is an inflatable structure covered with salt that reflects the sun's rays and lights up at night as if it had stored all of the necessary energy to continue to function.

This themed plaza was designed with the same sustainability criterion accompanying Expo Zaragoza 2008: the use of PVC is avoided in electrical wiring, as well as tropical wood, synthetic varnish or solvent-based paints; taps make use of water-saving systems. Additionally, the frame will be hired out to avoid having to demolish it once the exhibition has been taken apart.

The use of EFTE in the three layers making up the roof of the building makes air conditioning unnecessary for cooling the interior.

One of the EFTE layers is silver-plated to refract light and so not allow the heat from outside to penetrate the building together with the cooling provided by the air in the inflatable components and the brine system irrigating them. All of this will create a temperate building, meaning that the climate control system will only have to work against body heat produced by visitors and heat given off by equipment used in the exhibition. This way we can make use of a system that is much more sustainable than more costly and less sustainable conventional air conditioning.

Pietro Laureano, Scientific Director

Italian architect and urban planner. Since the start of his career, he has carried out numerous studies on desert areas. He is an UNESCO consultant on arid areas, Islamic culture and ecosystems in danger. He is also a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Pietro Laureano is the director of Ipogea, in turn an associate member of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

For further information go to: www.laureano.it

Enric Ruiz Geli, Head of the architectural team.

A graduate of the ETSA School of Architecture, Barcelona, he has been the director of the Cloud 9 architectural studio since 1997 and co-director of Metapolis.
Among the awards he has received is first prize for the Arquitectura Efímera Aguirre Newman design competition in 1998. In 2000 he was awarded first prize in the international design competition for the Aviary to be built in the new Barcelona Marine Zoo. His built work includes Morphorest in the Forum of Cultures 2004; Villa Bio House in Llers 2005; and the Cricursa Stand for Construmat 2005.

For further information go to:
www.e-cloud9.com
www.ruiz-geli.com

Martín Ruiz de Azua, Head of the design team

Born in the Basque Country in 1965, he lives in Barcelona where he shares his work as a designer with a teaching post in the Elisava Design School. He is a graduate in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona with a speciality in design.

He is currently collaborating as a designer with different firms, an activity he combines with a work on experimentation and research that has been exhibited in Barcelona, Milan, London, Paris, Vienna and at MoMA, New York.