Bahrain Pavilion ready for Expo 2020 Dubai

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) President Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa yesterday visited the Kingdom of Bahrain’s National Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai. Shaikha Mai, who is also Commissioner-General of the Bahrain Pavilion, was briefed on the readiness of the structure after the completion of its construction on schedule, four months before the start of the global event.

BACA is fully prepared to participate in the expo, which is the largest event in the region, to share with the world Bahrain’s civilisational elements under the national pavilion’s slogan “Density Weaves Opportunities.”

Shaikha Mai affirmed that the Bahrain Pavilion, with its unique architectural design and rich cultural content, will constitute a platform for creating promising opportunities for Bahrain. The Bahraini youth will have a remarkable presence through the programmes of volunteers, musicians, artists and craftsmen.

The Bahrain Pavilion reviews the concept of density and its role in creating promising opportunities. Through a tangible and spatial experience, it explores the density and future possibilities of construction in an increasingly crowded world.

It was designed by architect Christian Kerez and in collaboration with the UAE-based Wanders Werner Falasi Consulting Architects. Expo 2020 Dubai “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” originally was scheduled for 20 October 2020-10 April 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will now be held from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

It is expected to attract millions of visitors over the six months of its holding, and 70% of its visitors will be from abroad. This gives Bahrain a wider space to enhance its presence within an open commercial and economic environment.

Pavilion features

The pavilion forms an open and slightly submerged space on the site, accessed by a ramp that creates a transition between the outer and inner world of the pavilion. The structure of this central space consists of 126 columns, 11 centimetres thick and 24 metres high, connected to each other at several points along with the height of the space.

These columns support each other in addition to anchoring to the ceiling, in a poetic interpretation that illustrates principles of continuity and intensity in an exploration of three-dimensional possibilities inspired by the traditional geometric stucco decorations of heritage Bahraini architecture. This central space of the suite includes the main exhibition space, the gift shop, and the cafe, distributed liberally between the columns of the building that constitute the tangible spatial experience of the intensity of the suite.

The visitor experiences the space as if one were walking through a dense forest, where the exhibition and programme of the pavilion openly blended with the architecture of the building, which is based on columns made of steel, while the outer facade of the pavilion is made of aluminium, which represents one of the largest exports of Bahrain.

At the end of six months, the pavilion is scheduled to be completely dismantled and permanently reconstructed in Bahrain. The main exhibition element of Bahrain’s pavilion revolves around the textile industry as a metaphor for density.

The pavilion will display a live production of this craft, along with joint installation artworks produced and displayed in the exhibition space, and the works integrate handicrafts from the craft of textile and embroidery to palm frond weaving.

With innovative weaving techniques such as fibreglass and carbon fibres, emphasising the diversity of Bahraini folk handicrafts and the production of contemporary woven materials, as well as innovation and basic skills in the production process