The architecture of Ireland’s pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

In early October, the Irish Government announced the programme for Ireland’s presence at Expo Dubai – the largest World Expo to date and the first one in the Middle East.

Expo 2020 places creativity at the centre of human experience in the twenty first century. Engaging with the Expo’s theme Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, visitors will have the opportunity until 31 March 2022 to experience Ireland as the “island of inspiration and creativity”.

Ireland’s pavilion, designed by the Office of Public Works for the Department of Foreign Affairs, is the stage where these personal encounters will take place and itself encapsulates the cross-fertilisation between different traditions, or “minds”, and the resulting inspiration for new, sustainable design approaches adapted to the specific environment.

This is the second time that a team of the Office of Public Works’ architects, led by State Architect Ciarán O’Connor and Assistant Principal Architect Ger Harvey, have designed Ireland’s pavilion. Their approach to designing the Irish pavilion for Dubai 2020 started with an environmental analysis of the site, followed by researching Middle Eastern architecture for its solutions to the harsh desert climate.

The local use of inner courtyards and gardens to provide shelter from the sun echoed with the enclosed cloister gardens found in Western medieval architecture. Combining this with an exploration of Ireland’s Neolithic passage tombs dating back more than 5,000 years and their relationship to the landscape and sun through their carefully calibrated openings and artful engravings, the architects’ ambition was to reflect the understanding of solar orientation and its capacity to function as a metaphoric instrument in the building they designed.

These inflections of eastern and western historical architecture are expressed in the pavilion’s structure and layers: simple geometries inform the pavilion’s proportions at base, with a composition of two symmetrical square buildings connected by a cloistered walkway. The exterior of the building has elemental and simply proportioned columns and beams give a timeless architectural quality, referencing Ireland’s historical buildings.

Columns are spaced 3m apart and inset between each column is a perforated cladding panel with a solid decorative inlay of contemporary impressions of the outstanding examples of Neolithic art found on kerbstones in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Knowth. These decorative perforated panels act as a solar protection barrier during the day and bounce elements of Ireland’s ancient past off the ground with the play of light and shadow. At night, they are illuminated, reflecting inwards and outwards to the passers-by.

Inside the pavilion, the visitor’s gradual east-west progression through the building begins with an immersive time travel experience between Ireland and Middle East, past and present. Entering the first building from the east, visitors are drawn into a circular exhibition space under a raised cone-shaped roof, topped by an opening towards the sky which may be covered or unveiled and gives the room its name: Oculus. They emerge from here through a passageway into a second distinct space, a sheltered courtyard, the Garden, which will be the stage for a vibrant cultural programme involving a wide range of Irish creatives throughout Expo.

A harmonious relationship between built and natural environment is key to the OPW’s work and the pavilion’s design reflects this by making sustainability an important principle from the inception of the design process to the detailing of the construction materials and environmental systems employed. Energy modelling of the pavilion has been carried out to ensure the operational energy required to service the pavilion is within sustainable limits. The steel frame construction with an external envelope of columns made of rendered fibre cement board has been designed to allow the recycling and re-use of materials, just like the pavilion in Milan. However, at present it seems likely that the building will remain on site and serve as an education hub once the world exhibition ends next spring. In this way, too, the OPW’s design of Ireland’s pavilion responds to the Expo’s theme of “creating the future”, addressing the challenges of creating a sustainable built environment that adapts to evolving requirements.

Ireland’s pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai