‘EXPO 2020 CAN PROVIDE MOMENTS OF SELFREFLECTION AND CULTURAL CONNECTION’

Aer much ado, Expo 2020 Dubai is upon us. The World’s Greatest Show is ready and waiting for millions of visitors to enjoy its pavilions, innovations, events, activations and attractions. Most, if not all, of those visitors will pass through the now instantly recognisable entrance gates designed by British architect Asif Khan, who we speak to on page 24. He has been called one of the world’s “most exciting architects”, having worked on projects as farranging as the new Museum of London, an elevated playground for a school in the UK and a prototype for refugee housing on the Thai-Burma border.

But Khan tells us that he thinks the Expo portals are his best work to date. Consisting of a skeleton of lines held together by a feat of structural engineering, the portals are a play on traditional mashrabiya patterning, and manage to convey a sense of unexpected beauty and fragility, despite their enormous dimensions.

They are the first thing people see as they approach the site, making them vitally important. Khan movingly describes the structures as providing “a moment of transformation, mentally and physically. You are walking through a doorway, moving from one space to another, moving from one state of mind to another. And also moving from the past to the future.”

The architect and his team were also responsible for designing the public realm at Expo, creating a sense of cohesion and connectivity between the 200 pavilions on site. The level of nuance and detail that he has injected into these spaces – from the wooden benches carved out of Arabic calligraphy to the pathways inspired by Sadu weaving and a moving observation deck covered in trees – will take several visits to fully assimilate and appreciate.

As the first Expo to be held in the Middle East, the Dubai event has a singular opportunity to convey how much this region has contributed in the past and will continue to contribute in the future, whether in the form of philosophy, science, language or architecture, says Khan, who is of Pakistani and East African heritage. On a personal level, he found his whole Expo process to be transformative.

“I think it’s a cultural reconnection, and this is the spirit of Expo. It prompted me to have a sense of pride in where my roots are. The portals feel like the best work I have done to date, and it’s the closest project for describing who I am. I got to discover my identity, and I learnt a lot about myself.”

Hopefully, this is something that all visitors to the event can achieve. Moments of self-reflection and cultural connection. A chance to reconsider our perspective of the world and the country we call home – perhaps while perched on one of Khan’s stunning wooden benches.