Ugh Canada

An architect is, by definition, a designer of buildings, right? Well, the government of Canada, a nation whose credo is “peace, order and good government”, has, in all its wisdom, entrusted the architectural design of the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai--the theme of which is “Better City, Better Life”--to the Cirque du Soleil. Officially, Cirque du Soleil is the “producer” of the Canada Pavilion and its cultural program, the theme of which is “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative”. No competition was held to select the pavilion’s architect, producer or whatever, but to its credit the Cirque did in turn issue an open invitation to artists and creators to apply to be included in the pavilion’s cultural program, so even though the building isn't architect-designed, there is still hope that at least some of the content to be exhibited inside will be.

Looks like the government body in charge of expo pavilions, Canadian Heritage, couldn’t be bothered to launch an architectural competition for the design of the building, preferring instead a turnkey contract for the whole shebang: design, construction, and content. And who better to hand it over to than the Cirque du Soleil, one of the greatest and most successful shows on earth? What’s the difference anyway between a circus tent and a national pavilion at an expo, both of which are ephemeral structures? It’s the spectacle inside that matters, n’est ce pas?

There are two worldwide tendencies in which Canada is at the very forefront: the ban on smoking and the building of bland cities. The design of the Canada Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai reflects this perfectly.

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Morning Delivery

The maintenance of buildings is somewhat of a taboo subject in architectural discourse, which actually says a great deal about the kind of social class values in which the second-oldest profession is steeped. If the very definition of architecture is 'building made unnecessarily complicated', then any discussion of safety, maintenance, cleaning, deliveries, and other such prosaic aspects is tantamount to career-suicide for any ambitious architect.



But this is not the case for artists and filmmakers, who seem to be more interested than many architects in the poetics of post-occupancy. Both Jeff Wall's photograph titled "Morning Cleaning" as well as Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoîne's documentary film "koolhaas houselife", to cite only two examples, gain their effectiveness precisely from this blind spot in architecture; or from the chasm that apparently exists between architecture's high-minded ideals and its crude reality.



I would like to think that the socle of the Barcelona Pavilion was secretly designed as a truck-loading bay, but we'll probably never know for sure.

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Lighten-Up in the Mies Pavilion

The installation by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) at Barcelona's Mies van der Rohe Pavilion is simple, subtle, and surprising. And irreverent.



A single curving wall comprised of sheets of transparent acrylic winds around the pavilion's interior, creating a nearly invisible circular space. At first glance we might think of it as "Richard Serra Extra-Lite", but in fact this work is not about its own material presence, but about subtly, playfully and irreverently distorting our perception of this most canonical of Modernist buildings. If the Mies Pavilion is already a play of reflections, this adds another, radically different, layer of reflection.



The plan of the installation is a very loosely formed spiral (the symbol of pataphysics), reminiscent of the kind of shape that is often gesticulated by means of a pointer over a map by coaches, war strategists or architects. The work has a sort of spontaneity to it, perhaps due to the flimsiness and imperfect joints of the acrylic sheets. It appears not to have been overly labored, perhaps not even designed. With those oh-so kawaii rabbit chairs in there as well, I wonder if the installation might not just be trying to tell us to "lighten up!" If so, then I wish to second that emotion.



The Mies Foundation should also be congratulated for expanding the program of the pavilion beyond being merely a museum of itself.

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