seed cathedral

Photo by Katarina Stuebe. Courtesy of the UK Pavilion.

Photo by Charlie Xia. Courtesy of the UK Pavilion.

Photo by Katarina Stuebe. Courtesy of the UK Pavilion.

I am kind of obsessed with the Seed Cathedral, part of the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Developed by Thomas Heatherwick, the Seed Cathedral is the centerpiece of the Pavilion, and consists of some 60,000 slender transparent rods that extend from the structure. During the day, each rod acts like a fiber-optic filament, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, creating what looks to be a stunning space. In the evening, the whole structure glows from interior light sources. My favorite part of this whole crazy-looking thing are what gives the structure its name: the seeds. A partnership with the Kew Millennium Seed Bank, the largest collection of wild plant seeds in the world, the Seed Cathedral features tens of thousands of seeds encased in the ends of the rods that make up this structure. You can view more images on the UK Pavilion's website, which is where all of the above images were taken from, as well as take a virtual tour and learn more about the Pavilion's design.