Global brand experience agency, Avantgarde, has announced the opening of the UK Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020, which will run until 31 March 2022.
The project is the result of a close collaboration between London-based design and construction teams, led by Avantgarde, on behalf of the UK’s Department for International Trade.
Built around the theme Innovating For A Shared Future, Expo 2020 Dubai aims to celebrate humanity’s resilience, creativity, culture and innovation.
This is the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East as well as the largest event to take place in the region, with more than 190 countries participating.
The UK Pavilion is conceived and designed by Es Devlin with creative production by Avantgarde. It also had support from architects, Veretec and structural engineers, Atelier One.
The 25-metre-high structure invites visitors to donate a word to the ‘Collective Message’, a poetic collective message compiled by an algorithm, utilising the donated words and trained on thousands of poems from hundreds of British poets. Visitors will be able to begin donating words from 1 October.
At the centre of the Pavilion, within the cone structure, is the Choral Space which creates a soundscape featuring voices and instruments from around the world.
The pavilion also incorporates a restaurant, 1851, which aims to showcase the best of British food and drink from all over the UK. The additional event space will hold a series of live experiences celebrating UK experts, thinkers, innovators and businesses.
Steve Austen-Brown, creative director, Avantgarde, said: “Working on Expo Dubai 2020 has been an incredible experience. Seeing our vision and design for the UK Pavilion come to life and be shared with people around the globe is an amazing thing to be a part of. I’m now looking forward to visitors entering their word into the Collective Message. It will be exciting to see how this develops as more and more people visit over the coming months.”
Stuart Bradbury, managing director, Avantgarde London, added: “Avantgarde has been working on the creation of the UK Pavilion for four years, so this is a momentous moment for us. We were honoured to be chosen to represent the UK with this project and have relished the opportunity to work directly with both Expo 2020 Dubai and Es Devlin. After all the challenges of the last 18 months now feels like the perfect moment for a truly global, completely inspiring event.”
