Competition decides Expo site blueprint
By Chang Tianle (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-15 08:54

The final blueprint for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai will be decided on by the end of this year through an international competition, the organizer said yesterday.

"By mid-2005, we will submit a registered application of the Expo to the Bureau of International Exhibit, in which the master plan for the site will be an important part. So we need to close the plan by the end of this year," said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Co-ordination.

To generate ideas for the Expo site plan and design, Shanghai will host a Planning and Design International Seminar for World Expo 2010 Shanghai starting today.

More than 150 designers and experts from 20 or so countries will participate in the three-day seminar, including some of the world's top designers and best studios.

After Shanghai won the bid two years ago, the organizer modified the master plan submitted for the bid.

The new draft and initial ideas will be open to discussion during the seminar. Meanwhile experts will be invited to give their opinions.

"We hope to generate and absorb global wisdom into planning the Expo site," Zhou said.

According to Huang Jianzhi, another deputy director-general of the bureau in charge of the site construction, the final design should reflect the world's latest and most advanced ideas and philosophy of design.

"Green city, eco-friendly city, digital city, garden city and intelligent city. We've heard many such concepts and we have to study them and integrate them into the Expo site plan," he said at a news briefing yesterday.

Another key issue to be discussed at the seminar is the architecture.

"The plan should contain Chinese elements which will make Shanghai Expo unique, especially for the landmark architecture," Zhou said.

Moreover, the seminar will also include five group discussions on overall structure, environmental characteristics and landmark architecture, traffic, underground usage and infrastructure design, as well as continuous use of the site after the Expo.