EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE'S WORLD EXPO AWARDS BEST INTERPRETATION OF THEME: DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM OF LIFE

DESIGN: Shin-Ichi FukuokaNaoki,NHA|Naoki Hashimoto Architects,Takram

FABRICATION: Kajima Corp., Tanseisha

The Dynamic Equilibrium of Life pavilion was a matter of life and death. Producer and biologist Fukuoka Shinichi wanted it to make the most optimistic of points — how and why life doesn't really end — in an experience judges called “an artist's philosophical exploration.”

Representing the moment when life takes form, the structure's curved exterior was appropriately christened “Embryo.” When visitors entered the sparse pavilion, their silhouettes were projected onto the centerpiece called Clathra, a circular 3-D multimedia sculpture made of 320,000 LED lights. (The installation's name originated from the protein clathrin, which forms a scaffold-like frame inside cells.) Measuring roughly 33 feet in diameter, 100 feet in circumference, and standing eight feet tall, Clathra behaved more like a constellation of sentient stars than a string of light-emitting diodes. The visitors' projected shadows — if they waved, their silhouettes waved back — soon dissolved, merging with a glittering torrent of light particles rendering the 3.8-billion-year-old drama of life on Earth. The glowing, swirling storybook formed an ever-changing stream of layered images, starting with a eukaryotic cell, the 2-billion-year-old biological building block for more intricate life. The older-than-old cell and its descendants cooperated with each other and even produced more resources for other life forms to thrive. Out of this altruism — not Darwinian competition — plants and flowers bloomed, dinosaurs rumbled, birds soared, and Homo sapiens appeared along with countless other flora and fauna. Mesmerizing, even spellbinding, the presentation depicted life continually breaking down and rebuilding itself through a “dynamic equilibrium” that ignores entropy, nature's tendency for things to irretrievably break down and end. The world might be burning and the end might seem near, it said, but life will always find a way.

By Exhibitor magazine: Linda Armstrong, Sean Carlson, Danelle Dodds, Emily Olson, Nancy Olson, and Charles Pappas