Expo Dubai 2020 – Luxembourg Pavillion

Expo Dubai 2020 – Luxembourg Pavillion

  • Client: Expo Dubai 2020
  • Collaborators: Kaell Architekten / nowakteufelknyrim
  • Location: Dubai, UAE
  • Status: Competition entry 2020

The Luxembourg pavillion take its expression from simplicity of form, honesty of material and construction. It is a suspended land that is ready to take off. It embraces transparency which symbolizes the openness of Luxembourg, openness built on reliability and strong foundations.

The foundations are deeply grounded, rooted in history and tradition, and culture. They represent the inspiring know-how of Luxembourg and its intellectual potential. They are the exhibition area anchor point for the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. The form of the foundations takes its precedent from the red and blue “X let’s make it happen” logo – a national branding of Luxembourg. Deeply embedded in the world expo’s ground, are the substance and essence of Luxembourg culture.

Public square.

Taking the advantage of the spherical superstructure’s shading, it is situated on the ground level. The public space resembles an airport environment, a preparation area. There are mobile elements like food truck, airport maintenance equipment, sittings, open lounge areas, all constantly animated and vivid. The aeronautic reference indicates a phase transition moment, the preparation moment right before take-off. The mobile features are a sign of ever present connection to the world.

The visitor’s senses are greeted with wonderful smells of Luxembourg cuisines, sounds of music pieces composed by Luxembourg composers and the freshness that leads all the way down through escalators and lifts and grand stairs to the reception area. This floor represents the cultural substrate and Luxembourg multitude of ethnicity. Simply put – Luxembourg speaks every language. There are local restaurant stands, tasting stands, and amusement stands.

Here, you can enjoy listening to the music, tasting Mosel wines, try delicious dairy products, special Luxembourg pastries and dishes – it’s Luxembourg-To-Go: little pieces of the Grand Duchy you can take with you.

This area is wrapped around by a service and functional spaces. All of this exhibits the taste of resourceful Luxembourg, but in the same time the possible tactility and ever changing ambiance, moods and dynamism. The center holds a lift platform which can elevate you to the landing pod. The landing pod – a covering dome, represents the temporary structure composed of wood, steel, ETFE cushions, with solar panels on top of it. It allows for spectacular vistas, and later during day or night, it can be partially opened to provide a clear sky view. All of this is being live fed by a hovering drone above, providing constant aerial perspective transmitted inside.

The elevation platform takes you from the GROUND to the upper level. This is the connecting minds level. There are Luxembourg activities in fields like Bio medicine, Astrophysics to be found here. It also showcases the potential of Luxembourg in terms of workforce, human resources, business, health, intellectualism, outer space activities: satellites, space mining, academic research (UNI.lu), and activities of the 3rd industrial revolution. This floor with its two wrapping around ramps, serves as a compass that shows directions of various endeavors connecting Luxembourg with the rest of the world as well as links human scale with the extra-terrestrial through past, present, and future. The connections are possible either through charity or voluntary work, conducted by businesses or individuals. The history is depicted by portrayals of great thinkers and leaders, beautiful minds and their contexts. The future aspect shows the direction in which we are heading: the future society, way of living. All this can be experienced walking through the ramps, while also enjoying the spectacular views outside from the semi-transparent dome.

When arriving on this top level, you are enriched with great visual experiences and ideas worth sharing. This platform brings you as close and one can get to the academia, whether live or digitally broadcasted from another part of the globe. Connected through universities (UNI.lu) you can participate in conferences, lectures, and symposium as a holographic projection, being fully interactive with other attendees. While being here, one can also enjoy various viewings on related to the 3rd revolution themes. This platform highlights Luxembourg as a place of short distances, well connected with communities, thinkers, providing a hub for great minds – we make it happen in Lux 3.0.

We are thus inviting the academics, leaders and thinkers to interact with the rest of the world online, over the internet, and smartphone applications. This level also allows you the possibility to interact with the intellectual community, and the whole world. You can digitally inscribe ideas that are then projected on holograms or directly published on the internet, or even instantly pushed to your smartphone.

This ambitious program demands a swift call to action from all the participants, today. Luxembourg demonstrates itself as platform of idea exchange, a think tank and a moderator of great ideas, connecting the world together.