Expo Zaragoza 2008 :: Pavilions

Theme: "Water for Life"
Company responsible for exhibition design: Program Collective
Creative director: Mona Kim
Exhibition architecture and design: Olga Subirós
Conceptual design and contents: Todd Palmer
Audiovisual and interactive display design and production: Simon Taylor/Tomato

"Water for Life" is an open exhibition that does not offer a linear discourse; visitors are free to construct their own. It is an art installation offering a sensory experience through design and state-of-the-art audiovisual technology, which is the format for presenting the scientific content of the building. Like the building, the exhibition is divided into two spaces – plinth and tower.

The plinth houses content under the name of "The Nature of Water". Here the scene is predominantly horizontal and it is an experience that apparently takes place in a single setting. it is divided into the following sections: Water is, Water Planet, Bluescapes, We are Water, The Magic of Water, Water cycles and the great Rain sculpture in the central space.

The exhibition "Water in Mind" is in the tower where the visual aspect is dominated by the vertical height of the space and a smaller floor area making an exceptional setting. Here a memorable element is to found – the Splash sculpture. The tower is devoted to the cultural dimension of water and is arranged into the following sections: Water for Life, Water in Mind, Splash and Cloud.

The journey through the Water Tower is an invitation to look at the world we know through different eyes. It is an opportunity to perceive water through the eyes, ears, skin... and the imagination to give us an understanding of the different manifestations of water.

The Water Tower stands 76 metres high and can be understood as a dual structure uniting the two separate elements that make up the building and give it its unique profile.

The plinth is designed to overcome all the demands placed on the building by the terrain (differences in levels, slope, orientation for transit...) and is 13 metres high on its most visible side.

The transparent body, wrapped in glass with a sculptural form in the shape of a drop of water, is an iconic structure. This design allows the building to offer two faces – that of an opaque building during the day and a great shiny beacon at night.
This building is a necessary visual landmark. The interior exhibition space is designed around ramps that create an upward and later downward journey.

The drop shape of its base, the diagonal profiles on the façade and the brise-soleil creating an exterior prolongation of the ramps make the building take on different forms depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

The architect Enrique de Teresa and the engineer Julio Martínez Calzón are the creators of this emblematic architectural project.

Teresa studied architecture in Barcelona and has taught at the Schools of Architecture in Madrid and Valladolid. He has also collaborated with the Rafael Moneo studio. Among his most representative works is the conversion of Fuensaldaña Castle into the regional parliament of Castilla y León.

The civil engineer Julio Martínez Calzón is a specialist in structural frames and projects. A lecturer in the Polytechnic University of Madrid, he designed the V Centenario Bridge in Seville and the Castellana Bridge in Madrid together with the first cable-stayed bridge in Uruguay, named Puente de las Americas. He is also the author of the preliminary design for the great telescope in the Canary Islands.