Russia pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

The ongoing Expo 2020 Dubai is attracting crowds from all over the world. With 192 countries taking part, and each pavilion telling a different story, visitors to Expo 2020 will have the world at their fingertips. From learning about sustainability through an aquatic treasure hunt to using augmented reality to make your walk wonderful, the pavilions are truly unmissable at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The eye-catching Russian pavilion, with multicolored metallic lights wrapped closely around the structure, will make it one of the stand-out structures at Expo 2020 Dubai. Vibrant shades on the aluminum and steel tubes will change color by day and night and organizers hope the unusual architecture will draw visitors to explore the three-story unit. Architect Sergei Tchoban said the silhouette will transform at night when LED lights are trained on it.

The theme of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020: Creative Mind: Defining the Future. Russia has been giving the world great creators, inventors, writers, artists, and musicians for many centuries. From the writer Tolstoy and the scientist Mendeleev, through representatives of the Russian avant-garde, such as Kandinsky and Rodchenko, and to inventors, such as Sikorsky and Korolev, they all once created something without which modern life could not be imagined.

The Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai will not only talk about the scientific and cultural achievements of past eras but will also show how the creative mind can create the future for the benefit of humanity, introducing exhibition visitors to the latest achievements of Russian creativity. 2021 has been officially declared by the United Nations as the International Year of the Creative Economy.

The internal exposition is dedicated to the theme of Russia’s participation in Expo 2020 Creative Mind: Driving the Future. Creativity is the most important property of the human brain, therefore the main focus of the exposition will be the human brain – the most complex phenomenon in the known universe. The exposition is called “The Mechanics of a Miracle”.

The pavilion is a domed volume. Its outer shell consists of a multitude of intertwined multi-colored tube threads. The combination of many bright colors and the constant change in the direction of the threads create the feeling that they have no beginning or end, symbolizing the endless process of cognition, the rapidly growing speed of progress, and the unstoppable movement forward.

In embodying the image of the national pavilion, Sergei Tchoban, the architect of the project, set out to convey in the building’s compositional design the idea of constant movement as the prerequisite for unstoppable progressive development, creation, and progress. The pavilion is in the form of two hemispheres, one inside the other. The two hemispheres are domes embodying the image of Planet Russia and symbolizing wholeness and universality.

‘With our project,’ says Sergei Tchoban, the project’s author, ‘we set out to tackle several very important objectives. First, to propose a spectacular volume whose architecture would express the theme of this section of the exhibition and simultaneously contain associations with Russia as a great country. One such association is the way the small domed volume sits inside the larger: this may be modern and emphatically dynamic, but it also resembles the traditional Russian matryoshka.

Secondly, we wanted to give visitors the most comfortable possible conditions not just when viewing the exhibition but also when waiting to do so. The space under the lower dome serves as a convenient and capacious ante-area; it is well protected from the scorching sun and the heat and is packed with a variety of public functions.’ The building’s façades are made from a multiplicity of intertwined thread-like pipes of different colors that express the ideas of movement, development of meanings and knowledge, orientation on the future, and a theme which is very important for the modern world: the harmonious co-existence of energies and phenomena of very diverse kinds. The motif of lines of different colors outlining the building’s shape is intended, says Sergei Tchoban, to refer to the tradition of the Russian Avant-garde and the ‘exprimatic’ method – the use of free treatment of line to generate new forms – invented by the brilliant Constructivist architect Yakov Chernikhov.

Technically, the ‘threads’ are made from aluminum tubes with a diameter of 8 cm, which is bent at different angles and braids the volume of the pavilion in several directions. The total length of these elements is 46 km, the total number of segments is more than 1000. After the tubes were manufactured and bent to a definite angle with the help of specially designed equipment, they were coated with a colored polymer composition that reliably protects the aluminum from burning out in the sun. There are 6 colors used in the project, which, due to the countless number of combinations on the surface of the facade, form a very motley, constantly changing palette surface.

With a total floor area of more than 3600 square meters, the pavilion has three main storeys and two mezzanine levels. This has made it possible to organize inside it all the functions required: exhibition spaces, cafés and restaurants, and spaces for business meetings. The compositional idea of two domes placed one inside the other makes it possible to satisfy the main climatic requirement for such a building in the UAE: the complex must have a comfortable and shaded waiting area.

Abutting this is a space for temporary exhibitions, a restaurant, a souvenir shop, and a multi-height hall with escalators and lifts leading to the main exhibition level. The larger of the two domes form an exhibition space with an attached VIP room, a conference center (equipped with viewing terraces), and meeting rooms that provide ideal conditions for doing business over the entire course of the exhibition. The pavilion is surrounded by a decorative pool of water which helps maintain a comfortable microclimate around the building as well as serves as a gigantic mirror reflecting the Russian Pavilion.

Expo 2020 Dubai is a great opportunity where 191 nations are sharing their future together as well as encouraging visitors to connect their minds for the greater and brilliant future ahead. The Expo 2020 Dubai is a World Expo, currently hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. Originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To know more about the Expo 2020 Dubai visit www.expo2020dubai.com

Image By Courtesy: Ilya Ivanov