In a hive of solutions

A botanical garden in the German pavilion demonstrates the possible mini-landscapes which people can transform their balcony and roof into.

Fields of ideas

The German pavilion impresses with an informative and accessible presentation.

It manifests the motto "Be active" with two exhibition floors. Some 109 thematic "stations (display areas)" show a variety of solutions to guarantee safe and sustainable sources of nutrition.

Visitors are given a folding paper board, called the "seedboard", before entering the pavilion. At each station, people can place the board under any of the several projectors. The board immediately turns into an interactive touch screen, on which people can call up videos and navigate through content formats.

One station, for example, introduces how Josef Braun, a farmer from a German town called Freising, fertilizes soil by working closely with scientists. Take out the board, and a video appears and displays a routine day of Braun's. It shows from the perspective of a cartooned bee, who goes on adventures on Braun's farmland and watches him endeavoring on the field.

Lovers of German sausages and roast pork legs may find a station about the breed diversity quite interesting. The nation has survived a crisis of pig breeds: the many traditional breeds were replaced by a few hybrid ones, because the later gain much weight in a short time. Then people realized the benefits of the older breeds: they are more robust and produce high quality meat, and their genetic diversity reduces disease spreading.

A touch screen introduces the pigs of traditional breeds which were once endangered, but have become popular again. This includes the Swabian-Hall swine, German's oldest breed that were not raised from the 1960s to 1984.

A spiral staircase leads visitors to the second floor, a botanical garden full of vitality. It demonstrates the possible mini-landscapes which people can transform their balcony and roof into. More importantly, it tells how to circulate domestic wastes - compost leftovers into biochar and feed them to your plants. Saving energy also means saving your money.

Our only regret was not having time for the ending part, a show in which the audience embark upon a flight over Germany's landscape, through the eyes of two flying bees. People can move their hands and mouths to orchestra a soundtrack for the trip, by which they fulfill themselves in "Be active".