Article 003: Textile covers

The textile cover to be placed over the central avenue between pavilions is finally taking shape.

Zaragoza, at the time of the year when the expo will be open, can be a harsh place to stand out in the open and that’s why the organisers have decided to provide the visitor with ways to make it more pleasant. So there are many spots with water sprinklers to lower the ambient temperature (some day we’ll discuss the principle on which it is based) and shadow zones.

In this avenue in particular, a canvas of micro punctured polyester is being placed with the intent of casting shadow over the visitor.

You can see pictures of the first canvas, that was positioned late last year, from the top of the Participants’ Pavilion, where the green layer that will cover them is starting to grow.

Another photo from a higher position. Here you can see the avenue, with the first cover in place, from the Water tower.

Here there are a few pictures of the installation the fourth canvas. As you can see, the size is considerable.

The canvas, designed by an Aragonese, Isidro Ferrer,
contains fragments of sentences.

The canvas spans an area of over 5000 square metres. You can see in this picture how the avenue looks like, with pavilions on both sides and the gateways connecting them, and more canvas in the background.

The layout of the canvas is divided into 13 modules. The modules are sustained by arches, which in turn lean against the concrete cover of the main building and by 18 metres high pillars. A truly impressive view from the ground.

For the most curious, the company in charge of the installation is Iaso, which specialises in textile architecture

They also did a project at Madrid’s Barajas Terminal 4 that I had the chance to know due to work circumstances.

Here they are using a material called EFTE, and it is the same fabric used to cover the themed plaza “Thirst”. We’ll talk about it in future articles.