The structure consisted of a steel and timber composite frame 1 metre thick with precision-drilled holes in which 60,000 fiber-optic filaments, long and square in section, were held in aluminium sleeves. The filaments protruded both on the outside, where they rippled in the wind, and on the inside, where each displayed one or more seeds at its tip. The seeds were sourced from the Kunming Institute of Botany, a partner in Kew Gardens' Millennium Seed Bank Project, which the pavilion was designed to showcase. The interior was lighted during the day by light drawn in by the filaments; after dark, the building was illuminated from within by light sources in the filaments.
