DUBAI 28 September 2018: Award-winning British artist, Es Devlin OBE, is set to design the United Kingdom Pavilion at the World Expo 2020 Dubai.
The pavilion will be the centrepiece of the UK’s presence at the Expo – highlighting the UK’s expertise in artificial intelligence and the space sector.
The UK Pavilion will be produced by the London- and Dubai-based global brand experience agency Avantgarde. The Department for International Trade will lead the UK government’s presence with cross-government support.
Devlin is known for creating stunning large-scale performative sculptures that fuse technology and poetry, including the interactive Fifth Lion sculpture installed in Trafalgar Square. Her dramatic design for the UK Pavilion is an illuminated sculptural message to which anticipated visitors of each of the Expos will be invited to contribute.
Explaining her inspiration for the project and what she hopes it will achieve, Devlin said, “The idea draws directly on one of Stephen Hawking’s final projects, ‘Breakthrough Message’, a global competition that Hawking and his colleagues conceived in 2015 inviting people worldwide to consider what message we would communicate to express ourselves as a planet, should we one day encounter other advanced civilisations in Space.
“This announcement follows a competitive tender process which saw a number of leading designers and firms form consortia to bid for the multi-million-pound contract, and we are grateful for their submissions.”
Devlin and Avantgarde will join forces with Manchester-based structural engineers Atelier One and sustainability experts Atelier Ten.
German Pavilion to engage, inspire at Expo 2020
Visitors from around the world will be wowed by the German Pavilion that will take them on a unique and exciting educational journey through a ‘world of sustainability’ at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The design of the pavilion and its theme is ‘Campus Germany’. Designed by Cologne-based agency ‘facts and fiction’ and Berlin-based architects ‘Lava’, Campus Germany will be located in Expo 2020’s Sustainability District. It will feature a ‘vertical campus’ design consisting of separate modules that converge at a spacious atrium with a stage and restaurant, creating an impressive structure that reflects the country’s underlying theme.
A place of knowledge, research and communication, Campus Germany will provide every visitor with their own personalised interactive experience, while showcasing the country’s latest science and technology innovations.
Each visitor’s experience will be delivered by an intelligent assistance system called ‘IAMU’, which will act as an invisible companion to visitors, providing them with information as they move through the pavilion. IAMU technology will be showcased to the world for the first time at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Germany will invest EUR50 million (Dh213 million) in its Expo 2020 participation, with its 4,500 sqm plot set to be one of the largest of the participating nations on the site.
Expo 2020, the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, will run for six months from 20th October 2020 to 10th April 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits, with an unprecedented 70 percent of visitors projected to come from outside the UAE – the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
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