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The Amazing Seed Cathedral

The most popular structure at the Shanghai Expo 2010, even before it was officially opened, was Britain's Seed Cathedral. It was a six story high, cube-shaped structure pierced by 60,000 thin acrylic rods. Each 7.5 meter long rod sways at the slightest breeze, adding to the dramatic effect of the design.

The interior design images Nature's face.

Just like fiber optics, the acrylic rods draw in the light from the outside to illuminate the inside. At night, the artificial light on the inside is projected to the outside, making the Seed Cathedral seem to glow.

The end of each rod, on the inside of the cathedral, has one or more seeds encased in it. each rod has a different kind of seed. This structure was not meant to be a repository or seed bank, though. The seeds are actually encased within the acrylic, not stored within a cavity. Recovering the seeds from the acrylic would destroy them.

The Seed Cathedral was simply built as an exhibit for the Shanghai World Expo of 2010 by a nine member conglomeration of British business and government resources directed by designer Thomas Heatherwick at a cost of £25 million and won the BIE gold award for best pavilion design. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, this architectural wonder has already won the hearts of its visitors, who have nicknamed it “The Dandelion”. It's architecture was an elaboration of Heatherwick's 2003 work of the Sitooterie II in Essex, United Kingdom.

During the 6 months of the World Expo, the Seed Cathedral catered to over 100 public and private events, hundreds of VIP and dignitary visits and over seven million general public visitors.

The cathedral has now been dismantled, with some rods donated to schools, some donated to the World Expo Museum and some being auctioned for charity.

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If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, please take a look at the following web sites for more:

Oddity Central
Wikipedia
TED video - Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral
TreeHugger.com
Yatzer.com
A YouTube video of the cathedral
The DAILY