The motto of Expo 2010 in Shanghai: “Better City, Better Life”, focuses on improving urban life in the 21st century. The topic is particularly relevant to the event's location, after all Shanghai with its large population is one of the biggest cities in China. Balancity, the name of the German pavilion, is a coinage consisting of the words “Balance” and “City”, and the idea of a city in equilibrium take up the motto of the expo. The message of the German pavilion states: It is worth living in a city if it provides a balance – balance between renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition, city and nature, community and the individual, work and leisure. The German pavilion is divided into two parts: landscape and building structure. A terraced landscape with event area extends from the ground floor to the third floor. Above that are four sharp-cornered exhibition structures that seem to float and which together form a vast roof over the landscape. Inside the spatial sculpture visitors are taken on a journey through typical German cityscapes. They move as they would through a real live city – by foot, on moving walkways or escalators – through different urban spaces and topics.
 
The virtual travel companions Yanyan and Jens accompany visitors on a walk through the German pavilion. The young German man shows the Chinese student Yanyan his home country from his personal point of view and allows the visitors an insight. Short dialogues between the two young people aim to highlight German peculiarities and convey the heterogeneous character of the country. The journey through the German pavilion starts outside in nature and continues through the centre of town, past typical places and locations. Starting from the port, it goes through gardens and parks, for example, past a planning office and a factory, until it reaches a power source, the symbolic power station of the town. The interior of the power source is cone-shaped; open at the top, with three galleries arranged one above the other.
 
The central element of the power source is an interactive LED pendulum. Its surface is covered by around 400,000 LEDs that change colour and shape and display images as impressions of Germany on the expo theme “Better City, Better Life”. By the interaction of excitation, gravity and inertia, the drive system of the sphere makes use of the physical laws of a pendulum. Interaction is sound-based. The movement of the sphere and therefore the impulses are triggered by the spectators, directed by Yanyan und Jens, who have already accompanied the visitors on their virtual journey through balancity and now appear as real people. By shouting, the visitors can determine the direction of the pendulum and thus the intensity of the images.
 
In keeping with its size and self-image, it is expected that the People's Republic of China will stage the largest world fair of all time with over 70 million visitors and more than 240 registered participants – including states and international organisations. Even though it is expected that the majority of visitors will come from China, an international opinion poll ordered by the expo organisers has estimated that no fewer than 5 % foreign visitors are expected. Up to 46,000 people can visit the German pavilion daily between May 1 and October 31, 2010.
Jons Messedat