'Steam' to power Dubai Expo 2020

Expo 2020 Dubai has unveiled details of a Sustainability Pavilion which will highlight its strategy to help accelerate a momentum towards a greener and cleaner future.
A panel discussion, touching on these and other important issues, will take place in the main ADSW conference - From Sustainable Design to Sustainability Movements in Communities - which will be held on January 18. The list of speakers will include Expo 2020 Dubai's vice-president of legacy impact and development, Marjan Faraidooni, its director of youth, Alya Al Ali, and key figures in the design and engineering team for the Pavilion.Expo team members will meet other experts and business owners for their input and insights, including the Steam topics that are core to Expo 2020 Dubai thinking: Science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
The Sustainability Pavilion is planned to take much of its energy and water needs from the sun and atmosphere, one of the world's first large-scale applications of such technology. The Pavilion will be a testament to the progress made in the field of sustainability in the UAE.
Designs showing the vision for the structure, which will be located in the heart of the 4.38 sqkm Expo 2020 Dubai site, and other innovative projects at the heart of its mission are being exhibited for the first time at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) at the Expo's stand.
The Pavilion is expected to be a magnet for Expo 2020 Dubai visitors, especially children and youth, interested in science and sustainability - a key theme of the World Expo. It will continue its educational mission as a science 'exploratorium' after Expo's April 2021 closure.
Expo 2020 Dubai's ambitions align closely with those of the UAE, which has elevated the issue of sustainable progress to become a core pillar of government strategy as seen in the UAE Vision 2021, and numerous sustainability initiatives within the country.
Reem Ibrahim Al Hashemi, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General, Expo 2020 Dubai, said the Sustainability Pavilion's structure and its exhibitions were only building blocks of a more important overall ambition to make a fundamental change to the mindset of its visitors, the nation and the region in which it is hosted.
"Sustainability is at the heart of this World Expo and the legacy we aim to leave behind for the region. Our Sustainability Pavilion will play a major part in this effort and will serve as an 'oasis' for sustainable and innovative experiences and practices - linking to the strategy of the UAE government to be a leader in sustainability on a global scale," she said.
Moral obligation
"With the world's population growing at such a rate and its consumption of our natural resources expanding ever faster, we need all the converts to a more sustainable way of living we can find and we should start with the young. So we see our mission at Expo 2020 Dubai as nothing less than a moral obligation to ensure that these touchpoints of education and inspiration are meaningful, lasting and relevant to the 25 million visits we hope to attract."
Expo has recruited a team of architects, designers and experts from the fields of ecology and technology to design the pavilion, which will be unique in the region and an oasis for sustainable living in a desert environment. It is expected to attract some 30,000 visitors every day.
UK-based Grimshaw Architects won an international bidding process to build the Sustainability Pavilion, alongside US design firm Thinc and engineers from BuroHappold.
Andrew Whalley, deputy chairman of Grimshaw Architects, said the building drew inspiration from nature's models of sustainability such as the process of photosynthesis, which nourishes plants and flowers, capturing energy from sunlight and fresh water from the humid air.
Whalley continued: "We want the pavilion to be an example of what really can be done in even the harsh environment of the desert, where it's hot and there's a shortage of water. We will use cutting-edge technologies that will be tomorrow's everyday realities."
- business@khaleejtimes.com