The Walk of Fame leading into the Pura Austria pavilion
August 17, 2008. For the Zaragoza World Expo 2008, in the Zaragoza Bridge completed this May by Zaha Hadid in Spain, ARGE Strauss-Solid-Ritter designed the Austrian Pavilion, which will host Pura Austria and be open to visitors through September 14th. The architecture is based on the popular 19th-century cyclorama and resembles an abstracted alpine terrain. Visitors enter the pavilion along a path dotted with multimedia installations and video work by artists such as Tomas Eller and liquid.loft, which leads to a semi-circular arena where changing projections and a large, ceiling-high mirror create panoramic views of Austrian natural and cultural landscapes. Depending on the character of the projections, the mirror’s doubling effect can create a viewer platform in the center of the panorama or a stage for dance and other performances. On September 8, in Zaragoza’s Palacio de Congresos an Austrian-Spanish partnership will sponsor the one-day LIQUID SKY conference featuring speakers of architecture, product and corporate design, including Cloud 9, Porsche Design, Node, Robert Stadler, The Next Enterprise, Azuamoliné. expoaustria.at, expozaragoza2008.es
The pavilion’s stage is "doubled" by a mirrored wall
The panoramic view inside the pavilion’s "arena"
The abstracted terrain serves as a shop inside the pavilion