In the previous "World Expo Architecture, Monument in Memory", Mr. Zheng Shiling (academician, CSA) drew a rough picture of the development history of world expo architecture to us, and summarized five major features of world expo buildings and their positive effect upon sustainable urban development. In his opinion, world expo architecture development history went through four basic phases-"edifice","presentation of cultures and architectural theories and ideas","technological aesthetics", and "ecological aesthetics", considering the changing of social and historical events, world expo planning, world expo building planning and utilization, and development of architectural theories and ideas in a comprehensive way.

Here Mr. Zheng tells about the first phase-"edifice" from the first World Expo London 1851 to Panama-Pacific International Exposition-San Francisco 1915.

World Expo Buildings in "Edifice"

By Zheng Shiling

The early World Expos were originated from market place. As required by modern industrial and economic development, various kinds of exhibitions were introduced to present achievements in different fields from economy, technology to culture, in order to promote production and sales, to lead the trends in living and consumption. As well, such expositions were not only a national festival, but also an international big event. Therefore, large space buildings were popular in early World Expos, reflecting people's adoration to large scale machinery, energy, steel or edifices. The main buildings for world expositions shall have sufficient capacities to accommodate large amount of pedestrian flows. World Expo London 1851 (The Great Exhibition) attracted a total of six million and three hundred thousand visitors; the number for World Expo Paris 1900 reached forty-eight million. In a whole, we can find early world expo buildings of vast spaces, easy to be erected and dismantled.

"Crystal Palace"-a single edifice containing all galleries

Crystal Palace, London Expo 1851

The first World Expo was "The Great Exhibition of the works of industry of all nations"(known as "The Great Exhibition") held in Hyde Park, London, from May 1st to October 1st 1851, with the theme of“Industry of all Nations”. The character of the World Expo has fundamentally changed from solely commodity exchange to exhibition and exchange of state-of-the-art technological achievements and up-to-date living styles&ideas. Therefore, The Great Exhibition held in London was titled as the first modern World Expo ever in history.

In early World Expositions all galleries were placed in a single building, for the major function of these expositions was shared by a few participants (mostly industrialized countries) for manifestations of their achievements of industrial revolution. The royal commission developed their own design, a brick masonry structure building with a vast domed roof. The final building was based on a design by Joseph Paxton, a British horticulturist, who had struck on the idea of water lily and elm, and drawn his original design on a sheet of blotting paper. He aggressively adopted the greenhouse structure in his design, which made the whole building constriction period of only six months. The building was composed almost entirely of iron and glass, and was named as "Crystal Palace" for its crystal style visual effect. New methods of construction, prefabricated components and availability of cast-iron and glass made the Crystal Palace a reality, the first single building to accommodate one hundred thousand visitors per day.

The Crystal Palace was disassembled and taken to Sydenham Hill in south of London for re-erection, 1852-1854. After reopening, the Palace hosted all kinds of shows, exhibitions, concerts, football games and other festival events, particularly the famous fireworks show, attracting about two million visitors annually; it was destroyed by fire in 1936.

Relatively uncentralized pavilions layout to promote rational urban development and renewal

No specific theme pavilions, state pavilions, and region pavilions were designed in early world expositions, nor was the un-centralized pavilions layout. Till World Expo Philadelphia 1876, country participants were allowed to build up their own state pavilions. The 1873 Vienna Expo, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the reign of Emperor of Austria, saw the establishment of independent theme pavilions, including Industrial Pavilion, Machinery Pavilion, Art Pavilion and Agricultural Pavilion, which were the predominant pavilions in future Expos for a relatively long time.

The 1873 Vienna Expo started concerning the coordination of expo buildings with surrounding environment in its planning layout, instead of the traditional single building style. According to world expo planning, Vienna tore down its city walls, for direct linking between downtown area and suburbs. With dredging of the Danube and construction of city ring roads, the host city made great achievements in overall urban development and renewal.

World Expo buildings, the masterpieces in world architectural history

When speaking of World Expo buildings, no one would neglect to mention the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

In preparation of World Expo Paris 1889 with the theme of Celebration of the Centennial of the French revolution, an architectural competition was organised, more than 100 entrants suggested their respective projects, among which a 300-meter-high tower of open-lattice wrought iron, designed by civil engineer Gustav Eiffel, was selected. Making full use of advanced knowledge of the behavior of wrought iron arch and truss forms under loading at that time, the designer still use puddled iron of 7300t to build the structure. Eiffel Tower is a technological masterpiece in civil engineering, for its innovative application of open metal structure to building. Mr. Eiffel, as an entrepreneur, undertook all risks from design, construction, to operation.

During the early stages of its construction, critics disliked the Eiffel Tower. It is interesting to note that upon its completion on 31st of March, 1889, all critiques were turned out to be overwhelming appraises. According to the original planning, the Eiffel Tower was to be dismantled 20 years after the Expo. In 1916, the Tower started taking the responsibilities of a wireless station and a television transmission antenna, thus was kept and became the landmark of Paris, even be synonymous with Paris today.

Appear of host country pavilion

Even in "edifice" period, World Expos have gradually shifted from exhibitions of commodities to presentations of concepts. State pavilions of host countries were introduced based on the previous thematic ones; the original universal exhibitions were substituted by thematic expressions, with more cultural identity instead of industrial nature.

A scene of Expo Philadelphia 1876

The first host state pavilions were introduced in World Expo Philadelphia 1876, and then expanding to a host state pavilion zone from the original two small independent pavilions, which were separately located. World Expo Paris 1900 designed a relatively concentrated state pavilion zone. For more than 100 years since then, exposition layouts were developed based on state classification not commodity, and thematic pavilions were gradually replaced by state pavilions, the predominant exhibition zone within Expo area. Since World Expo Paris 1937, with the theme of "Arts and Technics in Modern Life", hosting countries were allowed to set up their local pavilions.

Some cultural pavilions and recreation zones were gradually introduced to support the main exhibitions. For the first time, Palais de Chaillot located at the left bank of the Seine was planned as a specific pavilion for cultural activities in World Expo Paris 1878. However, the independent recreation zone was first planned in World Expo Chicago 1893.

Art Palace in Expo Chicago 1893

According to the master plan of World Expo Philadelphia 1876, green plaza and water features were designed in the core area, surrounded by thematic halls and pavilions, which are further encircled by independent state pavilions. Such a planning structure can be found in many World Expos of early 1900s, such as Panama-Pacific International Exposition - San Francisco 1915 and World Expo Brussels 1935.

Royal Exhibition Building MELBOURNE1880