UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo - Plants

image by Woetan

While checking one of my favorite blogs this morning, TileEnvy, I discovered a post on the Shanghai World Exposition 2010.  I love looking at these architectural feats.  Wonderful and engaging!  Wish I could be there.

What really caught my interest is the UK Pavilion by Thomas Heatherwick. It is fascinating to look at, but the story behind the design is what really engaged me.  It is based on seeds and the Kew Millennium Seed Bank in the UK.

I am beginning to think more and more about seeds and our dependence and connection to them.


I have hollyhocks in my garden that I grew from seeds given to me by my California  beach buddy, Patti.  I believe that they are from her grandfather's garden and she grew them from his seeds.  I love the connection and the variety; its pinkish red color is relly wonderful.  Every time I look at them I am reminded of my girlfriend and her family.  :)


Check out this video below for a peek at the UK Pavilion.





I would love to visit the Shanghai exhibit, but what I would love even more is to visit the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew.







What an amazing and ambitious undertaking!  The Millennium Seed Bank is working toward the goal of collecting and storing seeds to preserve 25% of the worlds plant species by 2020 (and on and on.)

Royal Botanical Garden, Kew

Millennium Seed Bank, UK

Osborne & Little -  Maharani

 

All this thinking about plants has made me search out a few Botanical Prints. Here is a Osborne & Little print that I think is great.

Scalamandre, Florentina

This Scalamandre print has been around for awhile but I still like it a lot. I used this in a wall covering for a client in their mud room and it was wonderful!

Enjoy your day!  Thanks for reading!