Your Australian World Expositions Connection - Celebrating Brisbane's World Expo '88 and Australia at World Expositions - |
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Landscape
by Lawrie
Smith AM Landscape Director World Expo
88
World Expo 88 - the
premier event to celebrate the Bicentenary of
Australia in 1988, was staged on a 40ha site on the
south bank of the Brisbane River in the heart of the
city.
This international
exposition was attended by more than seventeen million
people. During the event period from April to October
World Expo 88 offered an unrivalled, never to be
forgotten experience, due primarily to the diversity
of the site landscape which created appropriate
settings for the pavilions of 36 nations as well as
the corporates. The world class entertainment program
staged day and night throughout the site, together
with the brilliant climate and the friendly Queensland
atmosphere ensured that World Expo 88 became an iconic
destination and lasting memory.
Lawrie Smith
(Landplan) was appointed Expo Landscape Director
responsible for the overall landscape planning and
design for this major international event.
The design required
coordination of existing structures, streets, and
parkland within a complex of new, permanent and
temporary structures to produce a specialized
integrated urban design of international consequence.
The landscape philosophy for Expo 88 was developed to
produce a site of diversity, exuberance and magic,
integrated by a strong overall strategy to form varied
and interesting spaces reflecting the character of the
pavilions of the international participants.
These precincts were
linked by a series of views and vistas created to lead
people progressively through a range of stimulating
site-wide physical and visual experiences. The
vegetation strategy provided for a dominant spine of
uniquely Australian specimens linking between
specialized zones of massed species typical of the
various world regions associated with the
participating nations.
The site landscape and
vegetation strategy was planned with three principal
ideals:
1. to establish plants
from throughout the world in precincts representative
of the participating nations to signify that World
Expo 88 was an International event;
2. to establish a
network of unique Australian native species
penetrating throughout the site to signify that World
Expo 88 was the major Australian Bicentennial event;
3. to mass colourful
sub-tropical plants dramatically in strategic site
areas to reinforce that the venue for World Expo 88
was in South East Queensland.
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