I think the Urban Best Practices Area pavilions on the Puxi side of the Expo Garden gave me a better idea what technologies and habits will help us realize the motto of Expo 2010 Shanghai - "Better City, Better Life".

What impressed me the most was the Broad Pavilion, where you can actually touch the differences that energy efficiency makes. When I touched the various walls, windows and window frames, I felt the apparent change of temperatures. The interaction was direct and thought provoking. In this way, energy efficiency has become something I can practice in everyday life simply by selecting better materials.

The pavilion itself also interests me a lot. At first glance, I thought it was a warehouse because it looked so simple, unlike other pavilions with beautiful appearances. When I explored inside, however, I found that the pavilion is a very concise building. It provides all the essential functions of a building while only consuming one percent of materials that a similar building would use. The six-story building took only 14 hours to construct.

As an architect, I know that in China, energy consumption of buildings accounts for 20 to 30 percent of merchandise energy consumption and construction waste accounts for 30 to 40 percent of total waste in cities.

The Broad Pavilion realizes energy efficiency and is environmentally friendly. I think maybe the pavilion itself is a hint to a future trend of making buildings practical.

After all, 90 percent of buildings in a city are not trying to be a landmark or standout visually. Function and rationality will return to building designs.

I also liked Ningbo Tengtou's UBPA case and London's UBPA case, because they made me feel comfortable. Nowadays, people put too much attention on what things look like and perhaps ignore other senses, such as how the environment sounds, smells or feels. I was fascinated to see butterflies in the Ningbo Tengtou area, because the creatures convinced me that I was in nature rather than an artificial environment. The temperature, the sound, like birds' singing, the smell of flowers and trees, all of these are the things we are longing for.

It's much better to build an environment that nurtures birds, butterflies, flowers and trees rather than putting up pictures of them to decorate the city.

The author is a senior urban designer with JH Design and Consulting (Shanghai) Inc.