Expo 2020
We were included on the shortlist of five groups to design the NZ Pavilion for Expo2020 in Dubai. In response to the brief to exhibit New Zealand as a great place to do business, the team elected to demonstrate the Transparency and Honesty of the New Zealand commercial and cultural environment.
COMMUNITY / CIVIC
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PROJECT
Expo 2020
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CLIENT
Expo 2020
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STATUS
Design
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COLLABORATORS
GHD Creative Spaces, Workshop e, Derek Kawiti and Thoughtfull
We were included on the shortlist of five groups to design the NZ Pavilion for Expo2020 in Dubai. In response to the brief to exhibit New Zealand as a great place to do business, the team elected to demonstrate the Transparency and Honesty of the New Zealand commercial and cultural environment.
To express this a contemporised version of the wonderful Maori, Hakiri frames was proposed. These structures were built for special events of celebration, negotiation and commerce. Our update was developed as a floating exploded frame which became more and less dense to create the various spaces and activities the visitors would experience. The frame was housed within a vast floating outer skin of membrane, covering the whole site and supported on only four columns.
This outer frame had a double skin which provides solar protection and a chimney effect for natural ventilation, while the roof was covered in photo voltaic panels. Dramatic lighting between the skins provided constantly changing colours for the external and internal viewer.
Much New Zealand innovation was incorporated. For example, the ground plane which flows continuously from the approach promenade up to a raised atea, is fabricated of concrete incorporating aggregate made totally from re-cycled plastic, a New Zealand invention which is soon to become a readily available product.
