Projects
UAE Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010
[ pdf project sheet - 1.3 MB ]
Shanghai, China
Civic
completed
The UAE Pavilion provides exhibition space that will highlight the United Arab Emirates at the Shanghai Exposition in 2010. Foster + Partners developed the initial form to resemble the sand dunes found throughout the country. In order to provide a column free space under each of the dunes, H+P worked closely with Foster + Partners through a series of form finding exercises to optimize each shell while maintaining the sand dune forms. As a result of this exercise, the three different sand dunes act as three distinct shells with varying support conditions. The ‘front’ sides of the dunes are made of a triangular steel grid shell structure, allowing straight steel members to form a faceted surface, while the straight ‘back’ sides of the dunes consist of steel beam columns to support both the cladding and the edge of the shell structures.
Structured as a bolted steel diagrid, the pavilion will be among the few national world-expo buildings to be disassembled and reassembled in its home country after exhibition - where its permanent home will become Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
