The countdown to the world expo has begun! The last one took place in Milan in 2015, the next will be held in Osaka in 2025. For 2020, it is Dubai, the hub of geographical and strategic, which has prevailed, with all the economic spinoffs that entails. And more than 25 million expected visitors, knowing that in the past year, the city has welcomed 16 million tourists. It holds the second place in the world in terms of fairs and exhibitions for business after Paris.
Among the 190 participating countries, some have already announced the color. France has done Tuesday morning at the ministry of the ecological Transition, in the presence of the secretary-Brune Poirson and Erik Linquier, general commissioner for France and president of Cofrex. The project of our future pavilion will take shape on a huge area, 438 acres, on the road of Abu Dhabi, about thirty minutes from the business centre of Dubai, close to the future new airport Al Maktoum international. A metro line is under construction to serve the site.
check out the France pavilion for the world expo 2020 in Dubai – Watch on Figaro Live
A world expo is made to put forward a bold vision of tomorrow’s world. «France has chosen from among the three sections suggested, that of the mobility, to show how a shift in an urban model attractive for the inhabitants, how one uses the full potential of the digital for the design of mobility services focused on the user, how we develop the fields of energy, climate and the environment,» explained Erik Linquier.
A landscape impressionist in the middle of the desert
In each section having the form of a petal (the others are sustainability and opportunity), there is a building lighthouse commissioned a renowned architect to Dubai. «One of Norman Foster will be just the other side of the French Flag, which must be at the same height» he added. This is not one but several architects – the Workshop of the Prado and Celnikier &Grabli Architectes – who have been selected to build the French Pavilion (5.100 m2 of constructed area), with a laying of the first stone in the course of the second quarter of 2019. The construction will last 14 months, from may 2019 to June 2020.
The team conducted a collegial reflection. «With the values of France, the Flag reflects our industrial know-how, its economic dynamism but also a form of savoir-vivre à la française, with all that this evokes, the gastronomy, the science, through fashion and culture,» said Jacob Celnikier. Obviously, it must embody the showcase of France abroad. All are agreed on the idea that it was necessary that the French Flag rises into the sky, above the shade (structures covering the walkways connecting the different pavilions), or over twelve metres. Where the pace very air of the building camped out on huge towers and covered by its large roof terrace with a unique view over the whole site.
A flag for a nation is the opportunity to show what she is capable of doing and being at the height of the stakes. «For us, it is important to take the comparison with a building copy bearing the values we want to defend, and the messages that we want to make happen,» insisted Erik Linquier. Boldness in the face of the climate challenge is one of them. The architects have worked on how to control the solar gain in designing an ultra-insulating and waterproof. Hence the idea of this protective shell covered with solar roof tiles (designed by Akuo Energy) forming as a landscape impressionist in Giverny ( The Lilies Monet’s are one of our prides in French!) the operator of the light to generate photo energy to electrical.
Nearly $ 30 million for the creation of the building
More than 80% of the energy consumed by the France Pavilion will be produced by the sun. A garden of 1160 m2 will also be planted in four squares to the French – a feat of engineering in a desert city – to allow the visitor to wait in the fees. It is known that the average is 2h30 before you can get into places, to visit during usually fifteen minutes. «It must be concise and fluid,» said the architects.
The theme of mobility has naturally resulted in a work on the light. To the outside as well as inside. It is Jean-Marie Priol agency Snaik (with which collaborates Yann Kersalé), which is in charge of the scenography. Three rooms change color with the flow of visitors. The latter went away with the full image on France. And outside, the facade and the underside of the canopy will be the subject of animations bright thanks to the leds embedded in the building and the rear projection issued from the ground. The cost of the building, fully removable, is 14 million euros. But rises to nearly double that if you count the whole, a part of the funding from the French State and the rest from sponsors and private companies. For the cushion, it is necessary to try to resell it…