Italian Pavilion to connect people through beauty

The upturned hulls of three Italian ships will become the cover of the pavilion.

The Italian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai will put beauty at the heart of the experience that connects people, and build on the legacy of the Expo 2015 that was hosted in Milan, experts said at the unveiling of the pavilion's design.
The Italian Pavilion, under the theme 'Beauty that connects people', will take up a surface of around 3,500 square meters, and will be over 25 meters tall. In addition, it will be located in an area of high visibility within the site of Expo 2020 Dubai. The international competition for the design of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai saw the submission of 19 different proposals, and was concluded with the award going to a group of companies consisting of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Italo Rota Building Office, F&M Ingegneria and Matteo Gatto & Associati.
"The project of Ratti, Rota, Gatto and F&M allows us to realise not only an exhibition space, but a space that represents the best of Italian ingenuity, offering a memorable experience to visitors, and showing the world multidisciplinary competences, talents and intelligences that can become promoters of new educational, professional and entrepreneurial opportunities," said Paolo Glisenti, general commissioner for Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai. "The Italian Pavilion will be realised with the contributions of partner companies - large, medium and small - called to provide the best structural, engineering, technological and scenographic components, that are able to demonstrate the most innovative competences committed today to sustainability, to the circular economy, to digital architecture."
As part of the design, the hulls of three Italian ships arrived by sea shall be overturned and raised one next to the other on tall pillars, becoming the cover of the pavilion. Each of them will be painted in a different way, and from above the design will look like three petals composing the colors of the Italian flag. The pavilion's architecture celebrates the history of Italian explorers who, throughout the centuries, sailed the seas and reached distant lands, weaving together contacts and relations around the world. The Italian Pavilion tells the story of a journey into the beauty of Italy, constant fruit of contaminations, exchanges and connections of knowledge, ingenuity, talent and art. At the same time, the overturning of the hulls is a choice based on sustainability, that also connects to an ancient tradition of seafaring populations and fishermen from Europe and the world.
"Turning over and reusing the ships was an act that had a profound appeal to us: not only because it is laden with historical value, but because it represents the realisation of a circular architecture from the project's beginning. The ships that become part of the pavilion can continue to be used in different ways even after the end of the Expo," explained Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA design practice and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"For Italy, Expo 2020 exerts a paramount importance, as the event is an excellent global platform to present to the world the best ideas and projects, as well as innovative models and solutions in the field of tangible and intangible infrastructures focusing on the theme connecting minds, creating the future," said Gianpaolo Bruno, Italian trade commissioner to the UAE, Oman and Pakistan. "Thanks to the legacy of Expo 2015, Italy will surely be one of the main actors of Expo 2020 Dubai, bringing its innovative ideas and creative projects, and enriching Dubai with memorable events."
Bruno also noted that the Italian love and care for beauty has always been a key element connecting different populations, talents, and ingenuities, and that the shared Mediterranean cultural inheritance serves as a bridge to the future. "The project would not only be an exhibition space, but a dimension representing the best of Italian ingenuity, offering a memorable experience to visitors, and showing the world multidisciplinary competencies, talents, and skills that can convey new educational, professional, and entrepreneurial opportunities."
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com