Construction began yesterday on the Madrid Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo's Urban Best Practices Area.

The Spanish capital is exhibiting its best examples of urban development: a bamboo house and an artificial tree that can control climate.

The Madrid Pavilion will be a five-story residential building covered in bamboo to filter sunshine, heat and sound, similar to its progressive social housing project south of the city.

The rectangular building, with 2,923 square meters of floor space, can house 88 people.

Rooms on the second and third floors will be decorated in Madrid style.

Other parts will be turned into exhibition areas to showcase Madrid's main urban projects using models and multimedia and how they've changed people's lives.

There will also be shops selling Madrid food and souvenirs in the pavilion.

The bamboo house in Madrid is costly, but the units are leased cheaply to low-income families, said Ignacio Nino, commissioner general for Madrid's Expo exhibition.

The Expo bamboo house will cost about 2 million euros (US$2.84 million), the same as the original in Spain, said Wang Fei, the pavilion's project manager.

The artificial tree, the Air Tree, which will be built next to the house, can reduce the temperature beneath it by 8 to 10 degrees Celsius in summer. The tree is like a massive umbrella, with 100 square meters of panels able to change orientation to achieve the desired conditions. It is covered in solar panels to drive a fan to circulate air beneath.

The theme for Madrid's 3-million-euro exhibition will be "Madrid is your home."

"Madrid wishes to be the home of every visitor to the Shanghai World Expo. That is what the pavilion is: a home (bamboo house) and a tree (air tree)," Nino said.

(Shanghai Daily July 23, 2009)