HP:ICM and Branson Coates unveil UK pavilion

The UK pavilion at Lisbon Expo ’98, designed to promote the country as a world centre for innovation, was unveiled last week.

The pavilion, by HP:ICM and architect Branson Coates, is created around the theme Oceans of Innovation, a sub-theme of Expo’s The Oceans: a Heritage for the Future. It is designed to receive 16 000 visitors a day.

It features six main “stories” and will showcase designs by Royal College of Art students. One area, the creative island, shows a map of Britain formed – tongue-in-cheek, according to HP:ICM – by a series of umbrellas.

A CD-ROM trailer for the pavilion has been created by Delve in London’s Covent Garden, using the latest computer games technology which will not be available until the autumn. “Our concept was to travel through an underwater world in an imaginary microsubmersible,” says a Delve spokesman. The pavilion’s logo is the work of HP:ICM.

Other UK designers involved in Expo include Mark Fisher, who is creating the evening event for the opening on 21 May, MICE, Met Studio and Neal Potter.

The Department of Trade and Industry is organising a visit by about 20 UK design groups to Lisbon in September to promote the best of UK design.