Cultural Italy Blog: Art, Coffee & Love

Best of Expo: desert city at the UAE Pavilion

Up to now August has been the hottest months at the Milanese Expo. Great weather is back to the city and, with it, tons of travelers came to visit the global event. In fact, as the Italian media report, this month a record number of visitors checked in at the World Exposition. And, according to their forecast, during the resting two months the attendance statistics won’t go down.

Yeah, Expo-2015 is just great! Well, who would ever want to miss this incredible experience in the heart of Italy, world’s number-one travel designation?

But how to deal with Expo these days? Growing number of guests means also longer waiting lines. So, ones at Expo what to visit first? Where to queue? In order to make your trip to Milan as perfect as possible, Cultural Italy is pleased to guide you through 150 different pavilions listing Expo’s best spots worth to see.

Previously we’ve already spoke about Austrian, Brazilian, UK, Chinese, Zero, Malaysia, Vanke and French participations. So, what’s next? 

As the next stop, we strongly recommend to step in the traditional desert city at the UAE Pavilion designed by the world’s leading architects from Foster + Partners.

The London based office did indeed a great job. This pavilion is a dramatic canyon-like space defined by undulating 12-metre-high walls. The whole structure evokes an image of sand dunes hosting suggestive narrow pedestrian streets and small courtyards typical of an ancient desert town of the United Arab Emirates. 

However, while offering an experience of the UAE’s ancient communities, this architecture is a cutting-edge and energy efficient design solutions. What is interesting, this Pavilion representing now the UAE in Milan will be dismantled and than reconstructed in the Emirates. The recovered structure will host a museum. Thus, the challenge that the London architects faced was to design a Pavilion that can meet climatic conditions of the two different countries: Italy and the UAE. To create a naturally fresh, comfortable space for Milan’s Expo visitors, and to consider the pavilion’s ultimate reconstruction in the hot Middle East climate, characterized by a strong need to provide shade and protection from the intense sun.

However, the value of this architecture goes far beyond sustainable design principles and achievements. Picturesque desert landscape and suggestive narrow paths offer a great artistic journey for anybody who steps inside in the world of the UAE culture at Expo-2015.

Maria Novozhilova

e-mail: novozhilovam.blog@gmail.com

twitter: @NovozhilovaM