UK pavilion at Expo 2010

The UK pavilion at Expo 2010, colloquially known as the Seed Cathedral, was a sculpture structure built for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai by a nine-member conglomerate of British business and government resources directed by designer Thomas Heatherwick.

[citation needed] Heatherwick conceived it as embodying what it exhibited and presenting a unique contrast with the norm of technology-focussed exposition pavilions.

[2][3] Heatherwick won the contest held in 2007 by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to design the pavilion, responding to the brief that it should be one of the five most popular attractions at the exposition.

[7] It won the gold award of the Bureau International des Expositions for best pavilion design in its size category[8] and the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the best building outside the European Union.

[2][5][9] Some were donated to botanical institutions in the United Kingdom and China, and others given to heads of state and other dignitaries who had visited the pavilion.