RAINING STORIES

The pavilion is a biotope – a miniature world with its own cycle. This temporary, circular climate system exists through a combination of unique innovations. The pavilion showcases experimental solutions to major issues of water scarcity, energy transition and food shortages on a life-sized scale model. Only united water, energy and food solutions can help the world achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In this way, the pavilion acts as a catalyst to inspire the world to change.

Visitors’ five senses will be spoiled for choice – though not all at once. We strategically emphasize certain senses in concert with the pavilion’s architecture. Sounds pique visitors’ curiosity. The temperature gradually shifts from hot to cool. Visitors can smell oyster mushrooms and taste the plants that grow on the central cone. The rusted steel begs to be touched. Scents recreate the smells of Dutch soil. When they exit the cone, visitors see the biotope covered in plants for the first time. This sensory experience unlocks the visitors’ imaginations, encouraging them to speculate what a circular system can be and achieve.

As if it were a mirage, the pavilion will disappear from the desert when the Expo concludes. Located in the Expo’s Sustainability District, the Netherlands Pavilion’s designers wanted to create a temporary structure that left little to no trace once dismantled. The pavilion’s construction materials are either reusable, recyclable or biodegradable. Builders leased local steel and will return it for use in future projects in the UAE. The factory workers wear clothes made of recycled denim and will reuse the material for future clothing. We believe it is our role as communicators and designers to help people imagine a better future. We are therefore honoured to communicate the story of the Netherlands Pavilion to its visitors.