FRANKFURT, Germany: The German Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo had been dubbed "balancity," doing justice to the Expo theme "Better City, Better Life," Dietmar Schmitz, Commissioner General of the German Pavilion, said Wednesday at the ongoing Frankfurt Book Fair.
"Better City, Better Life" was a well-chosen subject for next year's World Expo in Shanghai, Schmitz said. "I think it is a good opportunity to discuss those problems resulting from urbanization at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai."
"With our concept for Shanghai, we would like to show our solutions for those problems in Germany," he said.
According to Schmitz, during the Expo, visitors to the German Pavilion would have the opportunity to visit "balancity," a city of ideas and innovations.
"Balancity," a blend of "balance" and "city," is a neologism; the new word signifies a city in balance.
"A city can be a good place to live, if it provides a balance between renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition, urbanization and nature, community and individual development, work and leisure. That's the message of the German Pavilion," Schmitz announced.
There, visitors enter an awe-inspiring, cone-shaped room with dramatically choreographed lighting. From a hall, they can see a sphere, three meters in diameter and fitted with four hundred thousand LED points, on which pictures, colors and shapes showing harmonious cities appear.
A pavilion should offer information, but also entertainment, Schmitz said, suggesting that striking the right balance between learning and fun was the key to a successful participation in a world Expo.
Schmitz said he was eagerly anticipating the reactions of visitors, especially Chinese visitors, to the German Pavilion.
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