#Dubai expo 2021 highlights series

It was all paid for by the Emiratis, because Congress wouldn’t appropriate the funds. According to Middle East Eye, the pavilion will feature a journey to Mars and an idealized future city with minimal car traffic. Eventually, the State Department gave the job to Australia-based Woods Bagot, which has offices across the U.S., and worked with California-based exhibition designers Thinkwell Group to address the theme of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of the Future. Pavilion, which is in the opportunity sector: In 2018, the state department chose Colorado’s Fentress Architects to design it a year later, Fentress dropped out, without explanation. The interior of the vast dome, a self-supporting structure made of steel segments, serves as a projection screen at night.Ībout the U.S. They take you on a journey into your values, not wagging a finger at you, but presenting a hyper-real vision of the world and asking questions about what you want the world to be.” Aquariums, which use a lot of energy, were nixed, said Andrew Whalley, chairman of Grimshaw, explaining, “We had to balance what we can produce and what we use.” Tom Hennes, founder and principal of Thinc Design, says he and the Expo Authority agreed that “too many facts and figures turn people off, so the exhibitions have a more emotional context. The panels are intended to produce as much energy as the building uses (though both high temperatures and dust are known to reduce the output of PV panels in desert environments).

Sustainability, designed by Grimshaw, boasts 4,912 photovoltaic panels on its roof and on dozens of surrounding “solar trees,' elegant carbon fiber contraptions, 60 feet across, that track the sun. The opportunity pavilion by Madrid-based AGi Architects is focused on self-improvement.Ī close-up of one of the portals, made by robots winding carbon fiber threads (enough to reach from here to the sun) into delicate latticework panels reminiscent of aspects of Arabic architecture. The mobility building, by Foster and Partners, contains what the Expo is calling the biggest passenger elevator in the world. Each is represented by a massive theme pavilion. The relative lack of options in Dubai seems ironic because mobility is one of the three themes of the Expo (the others are opportunity and sustainability). By contrast, the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair offered half a dozen ways to get around, including a monorail overhead and gondolas above the monorail, and several kinds of trams at grade.

Buses will move around the perimeter of the Expo, and a limited number of individual golf carts, with drivers, can be booked in advance. Mostly, there are miles of paths, shaded by canopies of photovoltaic fabric. But once visitors have parked and walked through Khan’s vast portals, transportation options will be limited. The Expo itself, master planned by HOK with Populous and Arup, covers nearly 1,100 acres, not counting the adjacent parking lots for 26,000 cars. Reached by phone in Chicago, partner Gordon Gill said those buildings didn’t bother him, “since we designed them.” And he is sure the dome and the five buildings will remain standing after the fair, since his firm also created the plan for using the site as an innovation district after the Expo closes at the end of March 2022. Visitors can also take a stroll in the City in a Garden: a three-dimensional green area replete with forest trees.įor more details, please visit the Singapore Pavilion website.But, sadly, the Expo Authority built two hotels and three office buildings so close to the dome that they steal some of its thunder.

#Dubai expo 2021 highlights series

Garden Cones are a series of sculpted structures embodying vertical greenery and form the centrepieces of the pavilion. The Sky Market - an open, multi-purpose deck on top of Garden Cones and sheltered by a solar canopy - shouldn’t be missed either. Last but not the least, the country’s rich heritage is depicted through cultural programs, exhibitions and flavours. The Singapore Pavilion offers an immersive three-dimensional greenery experience a rainforest that doesn’t consume any energy and is powered by a self-sustaining ecosystem. Designed by WOHA, the pavilion explores Singapore’s journey on the path of liveability and resilience. Singapore’s net-zero energy pavilion aims at putting to fore the country’s urban innovation. Future.’ nature and architecture come together to create a breathtaking spectacle.