The Pavilion representing Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai, whose theme is “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, is a building which embodies in a creative and innovative fashion “beauty connecting people”. It is the Italian sense of beauty, which has always been expedient in connecting peoples, talents and ingenuity. It is a Mediterranean cultural heritage and a bridge towards the future.
The international competition to design the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai gathered together 19 proposals. The contract was awarded to the temporary group of enterprises made up by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Italo Rota Building Office, F&M Ingegneria, Matteo Gatto & Associati.
The architectural project envisages utilising the hulls of three Italian vessels, which will arrive in Dubai by sea, before being raised, turned upside down and placed one next to the other on high pillars to become the roof of the pavilion. When seen from above, the three hulls, each one painted in a different colour, will resemble three petals bearing the colours of the Italian flag. The architectural design is meant to pay tribute to the history of Italian citizens and explorers who sailed the seas and reached remote lands, weaving a net of relations across the planet. The Italian Pavilion narrates the beauty of our country, which has always been a fusion of exchanges and connections of knowledge, ingenuity, talent and art. The reutilisation of the capsised vessels represents a sustainable choice evoking ancient traditions of Europe’s and the world’s sea-faring peoples and fishermen. The Italian Pavilion will be constructed over a surface area of approximately 3,500 square metres, reaching up to 25 metres in height, located in a top visibility site within the Expo 2020 Dubai compound. “The Ratti, Rota, Gatto and F&M project”, said Paolo Glisenti, Italy’s General Commissioner for Expo 2020 Dubai, “will be an exhibition space but also a place where to showcase the best of Italian ingenuity ensuring an unforgettable experience to visitors. It will feature Italian multidisciplinary talents, ingeniousness and competencies which can promote new training, professional and entrepreneurial opportunities. The Italian Pavilion will be constructed with the contribution of large, medium-sized and small partner companies called in to provide the best components for construction, installations, technologies and set design, featuring innovative capabilities, having in mind sustainability, the circular economy and digital architecture.”
“The idea of capsizing and reutilising the hulls of vessels is very intriguing, not only because it carries along a historic legacy, but also because it represents a circular architecture from its beginnings. The vessels which are embedded inside the Pavilion may be used in many different ways even after the Expo,” explained Carlo Ratti, architect and engineer, founding partner of CRA and director of Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“The exhibition installations will envisage an escalation, up to a point in which it may be possible, with our imagination, to observe Italy from the sky,” explained Italo Rota, architect and founder of the Italo Rota Building Office.
“There will be a ‘Preamble’, with ample spaces inspired by Italian piazzas and a ‘Grand Finale’ which will have the features of a cathedral portraying nature, light and music of the universe, as the sky over the Mediterranean and the desert.”
The Technical Partners for the construction of the Italian Pavilion will be selected among entreprises, public agencies and research institutions -even in consortia with enterprises- representing the most advanced and sustainable Italian skills and technological innovation, contributing directly in the implementation of the Pavilion in diverse ways, in compliance with current regulations.
Anyone interested may submit their bids by replying to the
Request for Proposal which will soon be published by the Commissariato Generale dell’Italia per Expo 2020 Dubai at the following website: https://italyexpo2020.it/documenti/bandi-e-gare/ and by Invitalia on the following portal https://gareappalti.invitalia.it/
To download the rendering of the Pavilion, go to:
https://italyexpo2020.it/send/download.php?id=20&token=sb8GaWTYrhDfa3MYIKjFt1wOyEW9fU7j
More information at: Commissariato Generale per l’Italia a Expo 2020 Dubai
Press Office: expodubai.commissariato@esteri.it
