"Sounding Forest” is a finalist proposal for the Latvian Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai, designed by Malitis Architects. The project was granted the 1st prize in the first phase of a national competition in Latvia. The interactive installation puts in place an artificial forest made of piano strings, generating a playful dialogue between the installation and the visitors.
PARTISANS, in collaboration with HXouse and Besix, have unveiled their proposal for the Expo 2020 Canada Pavilion, titled “Portal.” The pavilion seeks to create an “alluring architectural invitation to step inside the Canadian identity.” Visitors to the scheme experience the diverse social framework that makes Canada a model for the world, using data collection and AI to reconceive the country’s diverse population as a crystalline AI-generated interactive cloud.
Artist and designer Es Devlin recently joined TED2019 to explore her iconic stage sculptures and upcoming work for Expo 2020 Dubai. Creating works for Beyoncé, Adele, Kanye West, U2 and more, Devlin is known for creating large-scale performative sculptures and environments that fuse music, language and light. Her TED Talk highlights a visual journey of Devlin's work to illustrate her incredible creative process.
The Kingdom of Thailand has broken ground for its pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, becoming the first South East Asian country to begin the construction of its pavilion. The Thailand Pavilion will represent the country through its ‘Mobility for the Future’ theme to showcase transportation, logistics, digital connectivity and personal mobility. To help reduce the heat transmitting to the building, the pavilion will be draped in a curtain made from more than 500 artificial blossoms. Inspired by traditional floral garlands used to welcome guests, the design symbolizes hospitality, luck and respect.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has unveiled the design of its pavilion for the Expo 2020 Dubai. The project will cover an area the size of two football pitches as the second-biggest in size only to that of the United Arab Emirates. Designed by Boris Micka Associates, the pavilion was made as a "window to the future" that symbolizes the nation's welcoming character, long heritage and unlimited drive.
Responding to the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai, “Beauty Unites People,” a team led by Dodi Moss imagined a multi-layered architectural experience evoking Italy’s history and identity. The design pulls apart the pieces that make up architectural space, separating the building into its structural volume and its tactile, material components. The proposal won third place in Invitalia’s competition to design the Italian Pavilion at the Expo, behind carlorattiassociati and Gianluca Peluffa & Partners.
Carlo Ratti Associati has published details of their competition-winning design for the Italian Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020, designed in collaboration with Italo Rota, Matteo Gatto, and F&M Ingegneria. Inspired by Dubai’s marine tradition, the pavilion’s construction sequence will see three boats arrive in Dubai by sea, before being raised and turned upside down to become the roof of the pavilion.
Titled “Sailing Beauty,” the pavilion seeks to explore new ways in which “beauty connects people,” embodying the theme of Italy’s participation in Dubai Expo 2020. The pavilion also pays tribute to the long history of explorers throughout the centuries who “sailed the seas and wove together a shared Mediterranean cultural heritage.”
Multidisciplinary practice SuperSpatial was selected as one of the 6 finalists for the South Korean Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. Their design explores the future of e-waste through an architecture that re-uses thousands of obsolete computer parts as a construction material. Shaped like an amphitheater for temporary events, the project uses the Expo as an occasion to think about the global problem of e-waste by using a pavilion as a critical medium.
Clément Blanchet Architecture in collaboration with Etienne Tricaud (AREP) have been shortlisted for the French pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The winner will be announced in February. The proposal is intended to enhance both the virtual world and the real to support human communication, cultures and interactions. The pavilion will be built around the themes of Light and Mobility to create a hidden oasis with two vertical gardens facing one another.
Tech giant Siemens is to partner with Expo 2020 Dubai in rolling out a major smart building project, encompassing 130 structures in a digital platform to control energy efficiency, comfort, safety, and security.
As reported by Arabian Business, Siemens will “digitally connect, monitor, and manage essential functions of 137 buildings across the 4.38 square kilometer site, through its cloud-based energy analytics platform, Siemens Navigator.”
The Dutch pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai has been unveiled, designed by a consortium, made up of Expomobilia, Kossmann.dejong, V8 Architects and Witteveen+Bos. The scheme has been designed “as a closed-loop climate system in which private and business visitors will enjoy an intense sensorial experience.”
Based on the Netherlands' chosen theme of “uniting water, energy, and food” the pavilion will be built using a construction method prioritizing closed-loop circularity, local materials, and a post-use recyclable agenda.
Yong Ju Lee Architecture and Atelier KJ have created "Elusive Boundary" for the Korean Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The project is designed as a place for radical encounters in different fields. The main theme of the Korean Pavilion, Mobility, is defined as a new space of possibility created by movement between territories and escape/expansion to new territories. The movement defined by new mobility is not linear, but a simultaneous event between territories.
The design of the USA Pavilion for the Expo 2020 Dubai has been revealed, designed by Curtis W. Fentress and Fentress Architects. Destined to represent more than 325million Americans, the pavilion seeks to “provide a unique platform for [the United States] to come together to showcase the very best of [their] cultural and commercial achievements.”
The pavilion is to be circular in form, with “slants fashioned to project a sensation of movement, making the viewer feel like the building itself is in motion.” The pavilion’s interior will showcase American innovation and technology, including the premiere of the Virgin Hyperloop One ride experience.
Architect Gabriel Kozlowski has partnered with Gringo Cardia, Bárbara Graeff, and Tripper Arquitetura to design a structure of floating tree branches for the Brazil pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The pavilion is inspired by one of the greatest technological achievements of Brazil: the improvement of the Direct Planting System over a straw. The design conceptually mimics this scheme through its layered arrangement - soil, an entanglement of protection, productivity - presenting itself as both a building and a symbolic image.
The Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) has been selected to design the German Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai. Designed as a vertical campus that blends nature and technology, the pavilion takes cues from local architecture and Germany’s history of outstanding lightweight pavilion design. Formally, the design features a freeform roof that encloses interlinked floating cubes that house exhibition and event spaces.
