The Dubai Expo Unveils Stunning, Otherworldly Pavilions Ahead of Next Year’s Fair

Dubai’s Expo 2020 may be postponed due to the coronavirus, but its newly unveiled main pavilions have us fairly certain it’ll be worth the wait.

Originally scheduled to begin later this month, Expo 2020 won’t be taking place until October of next year. However, the global event’s organizers have issued a host of renderings showing what its architecture by Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill, Grimshaw, and Foster+Partners (among others) will look like. Though each building is composed in a unique style, all of them share an aesthetic that marries innovative silhouettes with airy, otherworldly spaces. Collectively, they occupy a over 1,000 acres of outdoor space.

According to organizers, over 210 million work hours have gone into the project with the majority of that time spent constructing the host of buildings and expansive landscaping. At the center of it all rests the Al Wasl Plaza, which was spearheaded and designed by Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill to act as a sort of hub for the Expo’s three leaf-shaped districts and will be covered by a trellis of steel incorporating the event’s logo.

The Santiago Calatrava-designed United Arab Emirates’ national pavilion, inspired by a falcon in flight, stands nearby and will house everything from cafes to an auditorium and exhibition space. Its striking profile is mirrored by the Sustainability Pavilion––designed by UK firm Grimshaw––which has a massive overhanging roofline that is not only spectacular to the eye but doubles as a means of providing shade for the surrounding gardens and exhibitions spaces. It is dotted on all sides by solar “trees,” which track the sun in real time and absorb rays via solar panels to create additional electricity for the expo at large. In addition to the primary buildings, another 192 national pavilions will populate the modern landscape.

Built around the theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” the expo is the first global event of its kind to take place in the Middle East and 86 permanent structures have been erected just for the occasion. Expo 2020 Dubai will take from place from October 1st, 2021 to March 31, 2022. See more photos of the pavilions below: