Zierer Karussell- und Spezialmaschinenbau GmbH has as general contractor manufactured the "Bionis Experience Ride", a spectacular multistory track ride for the German/French Pavilion in Aichi, the World Exhibition Centre 2005 in Japan.

The theme of the German pavilion is "Bionis" proposing coexistence between nature and technology. "Bionis" is named after bionics, a study to apply natural principles to technology. Based on a communication-oriented concept, the pavilion is an experience type with minimal explanations, enabling visitors to get fresh firsthand knowledge.
The main exhibited item at the pavilion is an orbital system, called "Bionis Experience Ride," composed of high-tech equipment weighing 150 tons. Running on the multi-layered 300-meter-long orbit is the "Experience Drop," a transparent water drop-shaped cabin. Six people can ride in the cabin at one time and cabins depart at intervals of 45 seconds, running to various parts of the pavilion, enabling visitors to see a variety of scenes and exhibits while moving. At first, the cabin goes through a large dark and quiet cave, and then goes deeply under the sea and soars to the skies, making riders experience a human's five senses. They can also see multimedia, animations and wings of aircraft built with natural evolution, and experience spectacular scenes such as lightning and thunder. The "Experience Drop" reaches the final exhibition zone, the "Experience Lab," where theme-wise exhibition items and two-way communication media are ready and each visitor can take part in "Bionis" experiments.

 

 

When the World Exhibition came to an end in autumn 2005 the Bionis experience was transported to Büsum on the North Sea coast of Schleswig Holstein, Germany, where it was opened again at the beginning of 2006. There you can experience an exciting dark ride which combined with multimedia experience shows how a water droplet rises from the sea into the sky to become part of a cloud and then falls as a thunder shower, dances on the crest of a wave and finally breaks on the shore as part of a huge wave. In addition to all of this, information centres and installations showing experiments will illustrate weather phenomena, the tides, the history of storms and flooding. The wave shaped building opened its doors with the Bionis Experience ride in spring 2006. The ride`s name changed to "Blanker Hans".