French Pavilion, World Expo Aichi

Case study

For the French Pavilion of the World Expo Aichi, the largest site of the international pavilions, Barco realized a multi-screen theater, surrounding up to 250 visitors in an immersive virtual world. The French Pavilion introduced, according to the President Jacques Chirac, “a short emotive film of a rare esthetical quality on the question of sustainable development (meaning meeting today’s needs without endangering the future) ”. This film “Does the future have a future?” was the result of a scientific and artistic co-production between the Pass and the French Pavilion. The big show of the Pass (Parc d’Aventures Scientifiques) has already been shown since the end of October 2004 at the Pass in Mons Belgium and has up till now welcomed 60.000 visitors.
The immersive theatre offered an all-enveloping visual and sensory experience, and examined the emotions aroused by total immersion in the image and the effects of a journey into an entirely virtual world. This attractive space, which uses images in such a spectacular way, is quite unique, and was developed specifically for the French Pavilion. The principles underlying its design are simple, despite the sophistication of their technical implementation: the theatre consisted of a half-cube measuring 18 m (60 ft) along its sides by 9 m (30 ft) in height. The surface of the construction had a double skin: the external skin (of solid material) constitutes the object’s structure - it acoustically insulates the space from the rest of the Pavilion - while the internal skin consists of projection screens. They covered the four side walls and the ceiling, like a single giant cinema screen with five surfaces. Any elements identifying the structure of the space or revealing architectural reference points were thus masked. There were two entrances, enabling the audience to enter and leave the immersive theatre freely.
Images were projected on to each of the four side walls and the ceiling, exactly covering all the available surface. Viewers were thus literally enveloped by the giant images. The largest image, on the ceiling, measured 324 m2 (3,488 sq.ft.)! All five images were reflected in the mirror covering half the area of the floor. Through this optical effect, the exact symmetrical opposite of the space appeared in the floor. The viewer’s eyes thus recreate a perfect cube measuring 18 m (60 ft) along each side. The upper half of the cube is real, the lower half is just an illusion. Immersion in the image is total, and sensation is guaranteed. The synchronised projections can be combined to give a single image (like a circular cinema), or separate screens can show contrasting images. The audience remained standing, and visitors were free to move around, to test different points of view.