Hands on at Hanover

Irish participation in world fairs and expositions has been patchy, to say the least. We weren't even at the last one in Lisbon, despite its oceanic theme and our status as the EU's only disconnected island state. But at least we are taking part in Hanover's Expo 2000, the first of the new millennium.

After the Government made its decision last February to participate, a team of officials went to the Lisbon Expo and produced a useful analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. They found a principal defect in Ireland's previous Expo pavilions was that not enough thought went into integrating the buildings with their contents. The Office of Public Works subsequently produced a detailed brief for Hanover, inviting teams of architects and exhibition designers to come together and provide a more rounded package. Some 27 entries were received and these were whittled down to a shortlist of six finalists, from which the Dul consortium was chosen.

Headed by Murray O'Laoire Architects and Orna Hanly, who is best known for her Famine Museum in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, Dul (which translates as creation, element or passion) impressed the jury with its projection of a positive national identity, wide use of natural materials and integration of building and contents.

The pavilion is organised around two stone walls, inspired by the drystone of field boundaries in the West of Ireland. One is constructed from gabions (metal cages) filled with loose stones, the other - which is, in fact, two parallel curtain-walls close together - dressed in polished Kilkenny limestone. The rough and the smooth. "We had to express the Riverdance Ireland, but we also had to find a language for the building and a reciprocal treatment of what was inside it," Sean O'Laoire says. "We wanted to create something that was emblematic of Ireland without being in any way literal." In other words, no beehive huts, round towers or thatched roofs.

"The brief was to introduce Ireland to visitors who may know nothing about it," says Orna Hanly. Or, perhaps, to counteract received images from "Irish pubs" tricked out with willow pattern plates, books-by-the-yard and other elements of kit-form kitsch. Thus, the aim was to project a society that is both traditional and modern.

The chance to introduce visitors to Ireland at Expo 2000 nearly didn't come at all. Reportedly, it took strong-arm tactics by the former German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, to lure us to the capital of Lower Saxony. Knowing of our failure to participate at the Lisbon Expo, he lobbied Bertie Ahern on the sidelines of at least one EU summit to ensure Ireland would have a presence in Hanover.

It must be said, this north-German city would not be on many people's lists of "must see" places in Europe. Frequent bombing during the second World War, plus the post-war ambitions of planners and architects, meant that it was substantially rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s in a rather bland, modernist style.

However, Hanover is now bidding to put itself on the map of tourist destinations with this Expo devoted to the theme of "Humankind, Nature and Technology", which is expected to attract up to 40 million visitors - four times more than last year. Given that Germany is one of our biggest markets and that at least 70 per cent of the visitors to Expo will be German, the Government sees Hanover as an opportunity to get across the message that Ireland is now a "confident, dynamic" country and, though still proud of its past, it is looking optimistically to the future. A press release from the Department of Enterprise and Employment said the £3 million Irish pavilion would show that "the recent experience of Ireland - a culture which has fused strong, vibrant traditions with the ultramodern - provides an example of how many of the issues facing humankind might be resolved".

Whatever about such hype, the multi-disciplinary team of architects and exhibition designers who designed the pavilion is determined to make an impact. They have been helped by the fact that it will be located on a quite prominent corner site along the "prestigious" European Boulevard, with cable cars passing overhead.

In brainstorming sessions, walls emerged as a unifying idea and then the issue of what these walls were for and how they would be built. The team believed the landscape was very much part of the experience of Ireland. Water also became part of the equation, symbolising the reality of an island in a highly stylised manner.

The pavilion will be built over a pool of water, with illuminated fibre-optic carbon "cyber reeds" in the foreground and reprise views of the water through glazed floors within. It may also include a slice of raised bog, if this is feasible. The aim is to "convey some elemental ideas about the Irish landscape", as Sean O'Laoire puts it.

The strong linear plan particularly impressed the jury. As Orna Hanly explains, Dul was trying to make a "seamless progression" through the building via a series of ramps leading from entrance to exit. Visitors are taken on a journey through Ireland from pre-history to the present, using the latest interactive display-techniques. There's also a "sensory wall" with slots in it through which visitors will be able to "touch the rain, feel the wind, hear the music and voices, and see the beauty," according to Dul's presentation. Other "tasters" in this touchyfeely area will include a reproduction gold torque from the National Museum, accompanied by a computer chip. The exhibition, which is designed by X Communications and the Boyle Design Group, with editorial advice from Luke Dodd, former curator of Strokestown, continues with an interactive section introducing children on computers, four "elements" featuring people who have changed their own lives and a major film presentation on a suspended screen.

The "barrier-free" progression then exits through a retail area which will, according to the organisers, showcase the finest in contemporary Irish craft and design.

"People are bombarded with images in an Expo environment" says Sean O`Laoire. "If they come away with four ideas about Ireland, we'll be doing well." The pavilion embraces Hanover's theme of sustainability with its use of materials and its bioclimatic design. It is also completely de-mountable and reusable; indeed, under the rules of Expo 2000, it must be dismantled and brought home for re-erection on a site and for a use yet to be decided. There are already interested parties pitching for it.

There is, of course, a certain absurdity in the notion of a world fair to promote sustainability given the vast quantities of energy consumed, building materials used and air miles racked up by those who will attend it. But Hanover is using its Expo to create a new city quarter, based on the latest concepts, so there will be a tangible legacy.

An exhibition of all six shortlisted schemes for the Irish Pavilion at Expo 2000 opens tomorrow at ENFO, in Trinity Street, Dublin