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Australian pavilion - floating canopy with 'sky hook' support

英

British pavilion – mast-supported roof deck

Swiss pavilion - aluminium filigree

The monorail system encircling the grounds and the moving walks con- necting four gates with the festival plaza are operated as a model of future urban transportation means.

Speed, stopping and door-opening and closing on the four-car monorail trains, which run over a distance of 3 miles, are all automatically controlled.

Large transparent acrylic resin tubes contain the moving walks which are in the form of a belt con- veyor. Two such conveyors move at a speed of 40 metres a minute. There are 13 moving walks which range in length from 80 to 200 metres. Supported on steel pillars they are built five metres above the ground.

Another example of experiments in future city traffic is the operation of mini cars by computer. These battery- operated compute cars' contain an indicator panel on which the computer gives the driver a direction toward which traffic is open.

The computer-controlled cooling system at Expo is a further epoch- making experiment for Japanese cities of the future. It is the largest air-

conditioning system in the world, con- trolling temperatures in all pavilions and other facilities.

Water at 6 degrees centigrade is cir- culated through 25,000 metres of pipes from three refrigeration plants. The cooling capacity of the three plants is approximately 30,000 refri- geration tons.

Planning

Second to its technological achieve- ments, the planning of the Expo site may make a valuable contribution to our future environment. Though there are no plans to turn the site into a model city, it was laid out with future cities in mind.

Author, Kenzo Tange, has structur- ed the layout as a tree with the main routes of its pedestrian travel the trunk and branches from which blos- som the colourful pavilion structures. The central theme area he has covered with a vast open roof – a possible pro- totype for central squares of future cities.

Over the festival plaza, core of the symbol zone with its giant Tower of the Sun sculpture, is hung a giant steel- pipe roof, 108 metres wide and 292 metres long with a total weight of 4,800 tons. The largest roof in the world, it is supported at a height of 30 metres by only six pillars. The roof frame was lifted into position by air jacks installed along the six pillars.

Far East BUILDER, April 1970

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