This is the pavilion in Manizales Colombia. It was built as the exact duplicate of the Zeri Pavilion in Hanover Germany. The Zeri project has been destroyed and what remains is the Pavilion Manizales. The Pavilion Manizales was built to prove to the Germans that this type of structure could meet with serious loads, as the roof is lath and plaster with Spanish tile, needless to say heavy. After many months of testing the Pavilion exceeded the German standards for construction and the necessary permits were approved. The sister structure which consisted of 30 containers was pre manufactured and sent to Germany. Rumor has it that when it was to be destroyed the demolition company had to use several pieces of equipment to destroy it because of its strength. Finally a very large heavy wrecking ball took it down. The curious part of this is that the Zeri an organization committed to renewable resources just threw this structure a way to make room for the next thing. With all of the interest in Europe for bamboo especially Guadua one would think that some of the material could have been saved and not just sent to the landfill. Today the Manizales Pavilion still exists and is used by the Coffee Growers The “Juan Valdez group” for meetings. It is unlikely many people will get to see this as the structure is not open to the public. http://www.koolbamboo.com
