By Shizuo Harada

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you know, we had 2005 World Expo in Aichi last year.

I will start my speech on the topics of our World Expo.

On September 25th. World Expo Aichi Japan was closed successfully with 22 million visitors which is 1.5 times of the expected number of visitors.

The Expo site was hilly and the difference of height was about 40m. The site was planned to be a memorial park after closing of Expo. Most of the facilities were planned and built as temporary architectures and demolished after closing of Expo and the big changes of the site conditions were not allowed.

I designed the Global Loop as a main corridor in the Expo site which combines the Global Commons where all the pavilions of official participants were located. Average height of the loop was 7.5m and maximum height was 15m. It was 21m wide and 2,6km long at circuit.

The structure of the loop was steel and floor is covered with wood . People enjoyed walking on the wood deck and walking in the air.

Every pavilion was so crowded but people who couldn't enter the pavilions enjoyed watching the parade or events on the loop.

We reserved almost half of the site as green forest. There are many precious rare spices of animals, birds and insects in the reserved green area.

Global Commons were planned on the sports fields where had been already developed before Expo. We had studied many alternatives of the routes of Global Loop connecting those Global Commons.

The space beneath the Global Loop was very important in the hot weather and rainy weather. We had studied the view below the Global Loop.

The multi-purpose plaza was essential in the Expo site, for luncheon, rest and many events.

Electric Tram was planned on the Global Loop for the elderly or the handicapped.

In this area, the height of the Global Loop was 15m above ground.

The global loop was designed not to destroy the environmental network.

The mist was very effective in the hot weather in summer.

This bench was designed to have a rest and watch stars at night.

Many ideas were planned and studied in the design process. We have many ideas which may be useful in Shanghai Expo.

Compact City

I think the master plan of Aichi Expo will be the prototype of Compact City of 21st century. Compact City is not sprawled city. Highly developed area and natural environmental area are coexisting.

And I hope the design of Shanghai expo site also to be the new prototype of Compact City as

the main theme of Shanghai Expo is "Better city, Better Life".

I have been researching the design of compact city.

I will show you some examples of compact city.

This is the ABC project which I proposed in the competition in Japan. ABC means Advanced Building Complex. ABC contains parks in the air. Exoskelton, the outer structural frame enables to create semi-open space in every 10 floors. Exoskelton combines interior space and exterior space smoothly. There are sky parks, the intermediate spaces between interior and exterior space. The origin of the intermediate space can be seen in the Asian traditional architectures.

Sky city has the same design concept as ABC. There are huge atriums in every block of Sky city.

This atrium is also intermediate space between interior and exterior spaces.

Asian Architecture

Modern conventional buildings have been mainly developed in Europe and USA. The skins of the buildings clearly separate interior space from exterior space.

In the traditional buildings in Asia, there are the intermediate spaces between interior spaces and exterior spaces. Because the Asian climate is not so severe as it in Europe. The Asian Buildings should have intermediate spaces in order to save energy consumption and at the same time to create comfortable open-air space in the sky.

You can see the outside corridor. The corridor is called Engawa. Engawa combines interior space and exterior space and sometimes becomes the communication space with guests.

Changing Shanghai

There are some pictures took by Mr.Xu and his son, at the same place in 1980's and now.

I am afraid that Shanghai is following the same direction as European and American cities.

Shanghai should create the prototype of the Asian sustainable building and sustainable urban design.

Sustainable Building

This is the comparison of Aichi Expo and Shanghai Expo. The area of the Shanghai is 3 times larger than that of Aichi Japan.

Through my experience in Aichi Expo, I would like to propose to prepare

the enough intermediate spaces all over the site.

Visitors would like to rest, eat, sleep and get information in the intermediate spaces where visitors be protected from rainfall, strong wind and sunshine. The feeling and atmosphere would be very casual and friendly like market place in Asian cities.

I also would like to propose to build the Sustainable Tower in the Shanghai Expo.

The Sustainable Tower includes many semi-open spaces in the air like parks in the city. People would be able to enjoy the communication , taichi, and resting.

Visitors will be able to experience the new life style on Asian Sustainable Building while Expo is open.

After closing of Expo, the Sustainable Building will be the living monument of Shanghai Expo 2010.

As a conclusion of my speech, I would like to propose to design the living environment where highly developed area and natural area are coexisting. People can enjoy the cultural urban life in the central area and enjoy the outdoor life in the touching natural area.

This concept is applied in the Sustainable Tower.

Secondly, the intermediate space is very important in Asian cities. We should create more intermediate space in our cities between interior space and exterior space. This third space would lead to the new action of human life. This space would be the key of the urban design of 21st century.

Thank you very much for your attention.