The architects of New Zealand’s pavilion at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai faced a challenge.
How to cut through the ‘white noise’ of this global fair and communicate the essence of our country, in a flash? 
Warren and Mahoney’s response was to collaborate with exhibition designers Story Inc. Together they’ve approached architecture not as an object but as a seamless combination of architecture and exhibit.
Their goal has been to eliminate the divide between architecture and experience; between container and content.
From May to October this year an estimated 70 million people will visit the Expo.
There they’ll experience "New Zealand reborn" in Shanghai – a folded, inclined surface beneath a hovering lightweight 'sky surface', with sculptural supports forming a contemporary expression of the Maori myth of creation.
The pavilion’s welcome and arrival space, internal exhibition space and rooftop garden present the exhibition’s content in three dimensions – from outside, within, and on top of the pavilion’s folded surface.
The architects describe this as 'a multi-layered experience appropriate for a young, multicultural Pacific country priding itself onopenness, warmth and transparency'. Achieving this, though, has meant giving subtlety a back seat in places.
Warren and Mahoney, again working with partners Story Inc and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, have been here before – they collaborated on New Zealand’s pavilion at the 2004 Expo in Aichi, Japan. They know the need to make an impact on visitors.
“At Expo we have literally seconds to capture and hold people’s attention,” Warren and Mahoney architect Blair Johnston says.
Achieving this, though, has meant giving subtlety a back seat in places.
Atop the Shanghai pavilion, for example, is a nine metre-high pohutakawa tree.
“We need to tap into the imaginations of people with little understanding of New Zealand. It’s kind of like a national elevator pitch, except this time the language is one of design,”says Johnston.
While most countries will set out to impress with the sheer physical presence of their pavilions in Shanghai, New Zealand is aiming for an experience that’s inviting, informal and natural, from the warmth of the kapa haka party to the choice of materials and construction.
“Expos are typically about overload. Amongst all this visual and aural ‘white noise’ we want to provide respite, where the building and the experience become one,"
“In doing so we wanted to address the traditional Expo ‘veneer’ by demonstrating the processes of construction in the finished product.New Zealanders are fascinated by how things go together - how things are made - and we wanted to show this in the end product.”
At the heart of the Shanghai project though, is a clear business intent. This is a global trade show and it’s all about influencing decision makers in a market with a population 350 times that of New Zealand.
“When it comes down to it, New Zealand is not selling to the Chinese populace, but to a handful of influencers. This is an incredibly important audience and New Zealand needs just the right environment for these conversations.”