UK Pavilion by Kimon Berlin Licensed Under the Terms of CC BY-SA 2.0
This week’s crazy building is the UK Pavilion in Shanghai, China.
Part sculpture, part building, this unique box of spikes was created for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai for £25 million.
There are 60,000 plastic rods sticking out from the facade. Encased at the end of each rod are a few plant seeds—a total of 250,000. It was nicknamed the “Seed Cathedral” because the purpose of the pavilion was to raise awareness of the importance of seed banks, which preserve the diversity of plant life.
The plastic rods also create a subtle image of the Union Jack from every angle, a nod to its country of origin. With over 8 million visitors, it was the UK’s most visited tourist attraction that year. The Pavilion has since been dismantled, and its rods were donated to schools and auctioned for charity.
