"It's a pleasure to receive this award. It represents an acknowledgement and is particularly meaningful due to the material used in the construction of the pavilion, that has much to do with Portugal"
Architect Carlos Couto about the Pavilion of Portugal, which is entirely covered with cork panels
Portugal's Pavilion at the Expo 2010 Shanghai was awarded the "Design Award" by the International Exhibition Bureau. This award assesses the facade and exterior decoration of the pavilion, the architectural design, the construction techniques used in the pavilion and their relationship to the theme of Expo 2010, "Better City, Better Life".
Entirely covered with cork, a courtesy of CORTICEIRA AMORIM, the Pavilion of Portugal won an award in the category of pavilions covering less than 2,000 square meters. In addition, countries such as Finland (pavilions between 2,000 and 4,000 square meters) and the UK (pavilions covering more than 4,000 square meters) were also given awards.
From the moment Expo opened, it was possible to see the curiosity that cork aroused among World Expo visitors. The Shangai World Expo was also the crowdest World's Fair ever - 73 million visitors. Cork played a prominent role and visitors were often seen smelling, scratching and cutting bits of this raw material for bringing home a souvenir.
The enormous interest aroused by cork reached its highest level on 9/09 (September) when 9 natural cork stoppers were distributed to the first 99 visitors to the Pavilion of Portugal. The visitors welcomed the gift with enthusiasm.
In addition to the fascination generated in visitors, there is now the recognition of the aesthetic value of the Pavilion, which was strongly enhanced by the use of cork.
António Rios de Amorim, CEO of CORTICEIRA AMORIM, stresses the importance of the award now received: "This is the culmination of a great representation of Portugal, that made use of a raw material strongly identified with the image of our country. A paradigmatic example of the potential for using cork in construction, the Portuguese Pavilion evidenced, once again, cork's ability to adapt to the most avant-garde projects and those more aligned with the emergence of the new values that are well embodied in the motto of this world exhibition "Better City, Better Life."
As previously reported, CORTICEIRA AMORIM supplied more than 5500 m2 of cork to China. The entire facade of the Pavilion of Portugal (3640 m2 and more than 28,000 kg) was covered with insulation corkboard manufactured by Amorim Isolamentos. Inside, Wicanders® cork flooring, primarily with a cork appearance, covered the floor in all places open to the public and in official areas over a total area of 1100 m2. The floors of the areas where Portugal staged its themed exhibitions "Portugal, a World of Energies" and "Trademark Portugal" were covered with Corkcomfort Floating HPS range. In the office areas, the floors were covered with the Woodcomfort range, which combines cork with a wood apperance. In terms of technical solutions, 780 m2 of ACM (Acoustic Core Materials) manufactured by Amorim Cork Composites were used. ACM is a range of cork and rubber solutions with an excellent thermal and acoustic insulation performance.
