BWM Designers & Architects

Interactive exhibits provide fun for all the senses. Visitors are invited to playfully help power the exhibits. Only through their combined efforts does the exhibition show its full potential.

Entitled “Future Energy”, this year’s world exhibition in the capital city of the Republic of Kazakhstan is shining the spotlight on the topic of energy. The EXPO 2017 aims to create more awareness worldwide and to inspire nations to work together to meet the global challenges of the future. Some 100 countries and international organisations are presenting their solutions relating to the EXPO’s theme.

BWM Architekten and their team have developed an unconventional and refreshingly different concept for the Austrian pavilion. Conservation of resources and sustainability aren’t just empty phrases, but rather form a future-oriented context for the conceptual idea. The message is clear: “Future energy is you!” Human beings can engage their energy to actively participate in discussions and tackle pressing environmental issues.

As human power sources, we are required to take things into our own hands: The Austrian exhibition “With brain, heart and muscle power” gives the theme of energy a poetic, playful treatment. The focus is not on technology, but rather on human beings and the energy their bodies provide.

The Austrian pavilion: an interactive parkour course

The Austrian EXPO pavilion consists of ten fun interactive stations where human muscle power gives conventional power a run for its money. These stations were developed together with a creative team and tested in Austria prior to their installation in Astana. The exhibition only reaches its full potential when all exhibits are powered at the same time. This requires endurance, strength, dexterity and the concerted effort of all visitors. The playful setting and fun atmosphere touch visitors at an emotional level, rather than impressing them with hi-tech gadgets. Innovation – one of the EXPO’s main themes – becomes a tangible human creation.

The parkour course features contraptions such as bicycles, exercise bikes, cranks, seesaws and bellows that provide interesting and entertaining information about Austria. For instance, turning a manual crank makes the image of a waterfall appear. Together, two visitors on bikes can produce a series of pictures of Austrian landscapes. A seesaw at another station generates organ music. And yet another station allows visitors to make a selfie video using muscle power.

But the parkour course saves the best for last: The final station presents ten bicycles which, when visitors pedal in a synchronised rhythm, generate the Blue Danube waltz, Austria’s unofficial national anthem. Although the individual power of each person is required, it is the collective effort that allows the “Austria Power Machine” to reach its highest potential.

The image of Austria: a happiness machine

The pavilion can get quite noisy at times. Creaking and squeaking sounds and mighty strains of music can be heard from all corners and create a whole different world. Instead of hi-tech gadgetry, visitors discover charming low-tech installations overflowing with delightful ideas that paint a poetic image of Austria and place human beings centre stage. The aim is to firmly fix environmental sensibility in the awareness of the EXPO visitors using a non-verbal universal language.

The Austrian pavilion conveys an image of Austria that goes beyond the usual tourist attractions. It presents a country that, in addition to its undisputed world-famous features, also has many surprises in store. But ultimately the Austrian exhibition makes a statement: even cutting-edge technology cannot exist without the human collective and its many different social competencies.