Can an increase in quality of life be maintained as population densities increase? Moreover, what conditions should be satisfied before such increases in density take place? What role will nature, in the widest sense, play in such an increase in density? Is not the issue here ‘new nature’ literally and metaphorically? The Netherlands Pavilion at the 2000 World Expo sought to reflect on this ‘new nature’: a mix of technology and the natural, emphasizing nature's make-ability and artificiality. In contrast to the nostalgia evident in many participant’s critiques of technology and the consumer society, of asphalt and machinery MVRDV’s pavilion revealed that technology and nature need not be mutually exclusive; that they can - and should - reinforce one another.

At its conception Expo 2000 presented a yet untested typology and thus functioned as a laboratory; an experimental landscape. The proposal not only saved space but saved energy, time, water and infrastructure. A mini-ecosystem or future survival kit it explored how to ensure adequate light and address a lack of land. Expo 2000 is as a symbol for the multi-faceted nature of society: it presents the paradoxical notion that as diversity increases, so too might cohesion.