By Yu Li

The theme of the Philippine Pavilion is 'USBONG', a Filipino term that means 'the seeds of life'. The Philippine Pavilion takes coconuts as its structural elements and visual symbols, intending to fuse seeds with USBONG-inspired Filipino handicrafts and arts and trying to connect these seeds to human beings as well as the earth, the largest organization of seeds in the world to reinforce the Aichi 2005 World Expo's theme of 'Nature's wisdom' via the exploration of the relationship between humankind and nature.
The facade or the exterior of the Philippine Pavilion is designed around two keywords: weaving and poetry. The slim chestnut-colored aluminum strips stand for the fibers of coconut fronds, while the poetry of the elegant Hanunoo Mangyan tribe of Mindoro Island in the Philippines is engraved with laser-cutting instrument as adornments on the aluminum panel strips. The whole fa?ade looks grand and elegant. The interior of the Pavilion is also decorated with coconuts, with the flooring and consoles for exhibitries made out of engineered coconuts that are thick and blessed with natural embroidery of tree veins. On the walls there is a continuous weaving of fabrics using coconut fibers.
The Philippine Pavilion covers an area of 314 square meters, and houses two spheres, namely, the exhibition sphere and the experience center. Visitors could also find a Souvenir/Boutique Shop and a fast-food "Latik" Restaurant in the two spheres. The whole arrangement looks simple, bright and visually uniform.

The 41 exhibit items in the Philippine Pavilion are selected from all fronts of the Filipino lives, including handicrafts excavated by archaeologists, traditional woodcarvings, fabrics, classical books in the Filipino history, and even the wooden-soled slippers that were exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The exhibit items are in great harmony with the design of the Pavilion, as if showcasing the life stories of the Philippines and their interpretation of the nature. There are several projectors on the walls and ceilings of part of the exhibition room, casting beautiful Philippine landscapes onto the coconut-fibers-made screens, and on seeing these pictures, a spell of light, shadowy, obscure feelings could crop up in the minds of visitors, prompting them to ruminate in the most natural environments about the language of the nature and the creativity of the Philippines in their daily lives.
The experience room is the eye-catching visual center for visitors to the Philippine Pavilion. Visitors could enter into the giant coconut-shaped shell to experience the alluring coconut beds that are covered with coarse coconut fibers, and resting on them, people may leisurely appreciate these wonders jointly created by the nature and the Filipinos. Amongst these exquisite Filipino exhibitries, the theme of 'nature's wisdom' is showered upon the visitors from visual to sensory experiences, and visitors, under the massage of the nature, are grateful for these natural endowments.
There are also some other eye-catching things in the Pavilion. The food billboards are woven out of long coconut fibers, and are pasted with circle-shaped pictures of foods. Consoles of the exhibit items are made out of organic glass to highlight the effect of wholeness, avoiding any visual mismatch due to the addition of other colors.
All in all, the Philippine Pavilion takes coconuts as its structural elements, and the natural white color as its base color. The decorating materials are made out of the branches, trunk, fronds and fruits of trees, while the exhibit items are selected from the nature of the Filipino life, with the modern film and sound installations being only adornment and accessories. This kind of exhibition design, looking simple and coarse at first glance, is actually thought-provoking when you think about its underlying concepts.

In fact, the so-called forms, means, and effects in the creation of arts are all there to serve the purpose, and in the arts of exhibitions, how to balance the lay-out of exhibit items with the exhibition methods is particularly noteworthy. Improper treatment of a minor part of the exhibition could be a drag to the whole exhibition, while the total harmony of each part will result in a complete success for the whole.
The Philippine Pavilion won the "Category C" Gold Prize in the Nature's Wisdom Award announced on the Aichi World Expo, teaching us that 'harmony is beauty'.