Chile Pavilion

The main goal of the Chile Pavilion is to show millions of Expo visitors this country’s extreme geographical diversity: from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, and from the central green valleys to the eastern islands. These very different regions are described through their ecosystems and how these ecosystems are being preserved. To house this concept, the Chilean architect, Cristián Undurraga, has designed a suspended structure covering almost 2000 m2. It consists of a large wooden lintel enclosed by a frame of criss-crossed beams and supported by four concrete pillars that create an intermediate space.

The access point is a relaxation area with tables and benches in which the visitors encounter the Chilean “dinner table,” with all its flavours and colours. A group of red statues, modelled on Chilean farmers, indicates the path to follow. Visitors reach the suspended wooden structure by means of a central ramp that takes them into a multimedia nucleus featuring a tunnel with twenty-four synchronized spotlights that offer visitors a virtual reality experience.

The lighting project is the work of the Chilean lighting designer, Maite Zubicoa, who has opted to highlight the wooden façade and ground floor ceiling only. In the remaining space there is no artificial lighting given that images of food and their geographical origins are projected continually, as if it were a cinema. At night the structure looks like a huge lantern lit only from the inside. The pavilion’s wooden framework is lit by iPro spotlights positioned in the individual triangular cells of the structure, and a warm colour temperature was specifically chosen by the designer as it is particularly suited to wood. Maite Zubicoa also selected non-invasive luminaires that blend into the architecture while also highlighting its shape and form.LED lamps were used to reduce consumption levels, and significantly, only 20KW/h is required to light the whole building.