International Exhibition

Yeosu 2012

South Korea

Date
2011
Phase
Competition – not shortlisted
programme

The French Pavilion for Yeosu’s International Exhibition 2012

Maîtrise d'ouvrage
COFRES
Maîtrise d'oeuvre

bachnguyenarchitecture
Scène scénographie

Budget
NC
SURFACE
900 m²


The French pavilion in Yeosu, South Korea, invites visitors to travel with a grain of salt as an educational course on the topic of sea desalinisation, a future scope for drinkable water.
The journey starts with an expectation which is limited and managed out of respect for the visitor, right from the pavilion’s entrance. The visitor has the leasure to observe the ballet of jellyfish (whether real or 3D animated) through windows lining the queue’s progression.
Visitors cross our coasts and oceans through an immersion into the landscapes which define the French marvels, including our Overseas Departments and Territories. They find themselves playfully reduced to the scale of a grain of salt in the middle of the ocean. At the end of the exhibition, a vaccum of air pushes them towards the exit, into a gigantic machine, thus embodying the desalinisation process
They then discover an enchanting world of bubbles in tubes : the ground is strewn with salt which evaporates little by little through tubes in an upward movement to the ceiling. The Sogeumi grain of salt has evaporated, thus forming a salt mine. Inside it, a magical setting, clad with glittering crystals alludes to the salt’s coruscation. On exiting, the visitor enters a sprinkled garden, where water flows over the vegetation. This space is fun and magnificent. Flowers grow amid water puddles and an installation featuring glass bubbles is set in motion thanks to the chain reaction of water dripping onto it.
On his way out, the visitor naturally walks past an interactive touch screen displaying a natural landscape, on which the visitor can order a flight of butterflies, set off a water jet, summon a school of fish, etc…
A curtain of rain water falls behind this luxuriant vegetal canvas. In a fish tank, robot fish are here to enhance the playfulness of the place, for the children’s greatest delight.
After exiting the exhibition, the visitor walks past a shop, where the perfect gift awaits, such as a perfume flacon in the shape of the wondrous salt mine.

Pavillon de la France Yeosu 2012 Pavillon de la France Yeosu 2012 Pavillon de la France Yeosu 2012