REFERENCE
The UK Pavilion
Heatherwick Studio
Shanghai Expo, 2010
The UK Pavilion, also known as the Seed Cathedral was created for the Shanghai world expo in 2010. The pavilion seeks to provide a public space while being a direct manifesto of its design.
The Seed Cathedral is 20 meters in height and is comprised of 60,000 slender transparent fibre optic rods, each 7.5 meters long and each encasing one or more seeds at its tip.
The pavilion seeks to explore the relationship between nature and cities, reflecting London’s goal to be the greenest city in the world for its size. Each rod encases a seed, reflecting the Kew Gardens’ Millennium Seedbank’s mission of collecting 25% of all plant life species by 2020.
The Seed Cathedral is 20 meters in height and is comprised of 60,000 slender transparent fibre optic rods, each 7.5 meters long and each encasing one or more seeds at its tip.
The long rods are clear, and appear to reference a specific geometry within the center of the pavilion. This geometry appears to be invisible but reflects the rounded rectangle shape that is hinted at in the exterior pavilion. All the rods come from the normal of this pavilion.
A series of points were made on the original geometry, then had lines extruded from each one. These lines were then extruded to make the rods that comprise the pavilion.
Pseudo Code
Grasshopper Script
Model Showcase
