Expo Dubai: Italy’s ecological pavilion made with orange peel and coffee

Rota is one of the pavilion’s designers and has worked extensively in Paris, where he curated the lighting for Notre-Dame Cathedral and the banks of the River Seine. “The nautical cables themselves are an example (of the circular economy): they were produced from the recycling of 2 million plastic bottles and, when added together, reach 70 kilometers. They are already planned for further recycling after the Expo. ”

Reducing the amount of waste at the end of the event was also a priority for co-designer Carlo Ratti, an architect and engineer who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

One thing I don’t like about temporary events like various international exhibitions or the Olympic Games is that a lot of waste goes to landfill after just a few weeks or months. That’s why we wanted the Italian Pavilion to address the temporary nature of Expo Dubai 2020. Most of the architectural elements are recycled or recyclable, reused or reusable.

Carlos Ratti, pavilion co-designer

Both Rota and Ratti have previous experience with World Exhibitions, having worked on projects for the last edition, held in Milan in 2015. The current exhibition, whose opening was delayed last year due to the pandemic and therefore retains the nickname “2020 ”, will remain open in Dubai until the end of March 2022.

The pavilion incorporates reusable design in its structure, through the use of organic elements such as orange peel and coffee grounds in the building materials, and has a natural climate mitigation system that uses shading, fogging and ventilation to replace the air conditioning .

There are no conventional walls, and the nautical ropes delimit the exhibition space, also functioning as a multimedia surface through the use of LEDs that light up to show different colors and images.

After entering, visitors find themselves on a walkway 11 meters above ground level and just below the first hull.

Among the attractions are the “Belvedere”, a domed structure covered with wild Mediterranean herbs and designed to evoke Renaissance gardens, and a 3D-printed replica of Michelangelo’s famous statue of David, made from detailed scans of the 16th century original in Florence.

The 5 meter figure spans two floors and its lower half is swathed in a roundabout, somewhat limiting her view in favor of her head and upper torso. “We think it’s an exciting idea for visitors to look at Davi not just from the bottom up, like the original in Florence, but directly into his eyes,” says Ratti.

In the spirit of experimenting with different ways of bringing together the natural and artificial worlds, the structure rests on a 5 meter high dune made of locally sourced sand. The paths and inner paths are adorned with 160 botanical species, a project developed in conjunction with botanists from the National Research Council of Italy.

The hulls of the boats that form the roof were built by Fincantieri, one of the biggest shipbuilders in Europe, and there is a possibility that they will eventually be transformed into working boats, says Ratti.

However, there are ongoing conversations about transforming the pavilion into a design center when the World Expo ends. “So boat hulls can become victims of their own success,” says Ratti, “and it may take longer before they leave.”

Translated text. Read the original in English.