Expo 2020 Dubai, 2021–2022

Text and photos: Pál Lővei

Scheduled for the winter of 2020/2021, and referred to as the Expo2020 ever since, this exhibition had to be postponed a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is undoubtedly the best organised and integrated and, besides that of Seville, also the highest-ranking category of the world exhibitions of the past three decades (Hannover, Shanghai, Milan). Hosted by Dubai, the best known centre of the United Arab Emirates, the desert site allowed designers of the master scheme free handling. The main entrance reception hall containing the underground station is arranged around an axis that starts from the ceremonial space, which is a venue for official events, and continues in the broad avenue to join Al Wasl Plaza, the tallest building of the expo with a pierced steel structure shaped like a huge cupola larger than a hemisphere. The six avenues starting from the Plaza do not only divide the area defined by the boulevard into circular sectors, but it also continues to outline the three almond-shaped petals and the two parks filling the space in-between them. These motifs in turn spatially define the subtopics of the world exhibition.