The Danish pavilion

The Danish pavilion at EXPO at EXPO Shanghai 2010 offers a genuinely Danish city experience. As a visitor, you will get not only a visual impression of Danish urban life but also an actual chance to feel it. The leading idea is that experience promotes understanding.

The Danish pavilion at the World EXPO 2010 Shanghai is named Welfairytales, and the contraction of the words welfare and fairytales frames the total concept of the pavilion and the exhibition.

The thesis of the project is that after the attainment of wealth, you will go for welfare, which is a far more complex notion. By means of short interactive stories, Welfairytales will show how wealth and welfare are two sides of the same coin.

Interactive book of experience
Welfairytales unfolds to the visitor like an interactive book of experience. The visitor can experience the exhibition by strolling round the pavilion at their own leisure, contemplating Danish city life, for instance. But they can also get an impression of the exhibition theme by getting onto a bicycle and having a ride through the pavilion to actually perceive what it is like to bike in a Danish city. Therefore the pavilion has been designed as a traffic centre for pedestrians and cyclists.

Furthermore, it is the intention that the exhibition can be experienced at two speeds: a calm stroll with time to absorb the surroundings, or a dynamic bicycle trip with the city and city life rushing by.

The exhibition concept
The exhibition concept is an extension of Denmark’s international branding strategy, where Danish values such as transparency and openness are highlighted. In Denmark, we think holistically in the sense that consumerism and growth go hand in hand with sustainability and social responsibility.

Welfairytales presents Denmark as a family-friendly, nice, natural, beautiful, and active country. These values are communicated by means of stories about the good life and of what Danes love to do in the city.

The stories are combined with what you experience in the pavilion ­– you can have a picnic on the roof, explore the playground, or take an indoor or outdoor bicycle trip. The exhibition presents Danish technological solutions to city problems and shows where Denmark is going. Welfairytales is a fairytale – told by man to man.

The pavilion design
The pavilion is a monolithic steel structure designed as a double spiral taking the visitors from the ground and through two curves up to a level of 20 metres and down again. The spiral lightly touches the ground floor, which encircles a paddling pool with the Little Mermaid in the centre.

The roof is covered in a light blue artificial material, known from Danish cycle paths. Inside, the floor also features the blue cycle path where the bikes pass through the building.