Yes, you read that correctly, and construction is already underway.
The structure - resembling a giant dandelion clock - comes from the brilliant mind of Thomas Heatherwick. Costing around £13.2 million, it's set to be the UK pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo and will feature 60,000 7.5m-long acrylic “hairs” designed to sway with the wind, and have seeds from Kew Garden’s millennium seed bank embedded in the ends. Additionally, natural light will flood through the acrylic spines, illuminating the building during the day, while at night the structure will glow from within making it quite the spectacle.
“The world’s largest ever hairy building”, is Heatherwick's own description of the structure which will apparently also evoke a similar atmosphere of “the manuscript room at the British Library” internally.
We think £13.2 million is quite pricey for a temporary structure, but then quality doesn't come cheap...
