Last night at the inauguration of the Italian Pavilion of ExpoDubai2020 among all the "authors" I was there to celebrate this large space without walls and full of meanings: beauty combined with technology, sustainability with craftsmanship, married recycling to architecture, the memory of the past with the eyes of the future. It is no coincidence that on the first day it was the most visited and immediately awarded pavilion.

Meanwhile: the ExpoDubai area is immense, 4.38 square km, the largest ever built, and 198 exhibitors, the highest number of nations ever seen. The space stolen from the desert and built in a few years brings imposing buildings, imaginative structures, plays of shadow and light obtained with the famous "perforated" roofs of Arab culture. Moving between the various routes is not easy, the indications are summary, placed at the top, not very visible. Better to arm yourself with a navigator and holy patience to try to find the desired place. For me it was the Italian Pavilion. Located in a position a little lateral to the main route, inside the Sustainability Village, it is not very visible until the tricolor cover appears in the distance, and then everything becomes clearer.
From the first day it was the most visited and certainly the most original, immediately awarded with the "Construction Innovation Awards" of the United Arab Emirates as the best business project of the year.
Designers, sponsors and suppliers have given their best in terms of innovation. Beauty remains the common thread of every topic, the key to understanding our country so mistreated at home, so appreciated abroad. The cultural and educational project during the year promises to be full of initiatives that tell the story of an Italy that is reborn, aware, rich in culture and resources. Alongside industries and universities. How to say the present and the future.
The perimeter walls of the "building" are made with nautical ropes made from thousands of recycled bottles, the roof from the hulls of three boats ready to leave, the orange floor of the path made from orange peels, the oxygen exchange ensured by the treatment of the water with an alga that purifies the air, the internal garden has only edible plants. There is no air conditioning system because it is guaranteed by the air flows (but at more than 40 ° the result was scarce), the David perfectly reproduced with 3D printing, even if modestly not very visible because it was considered too "naked" for the local sensitivity. The curators Carlo Ratti, Italo Rota, Davide Rampello in the unusual role of tour guides have nicely told us the secrets of these wonders.
It was nice to see old friends: commissioner Paolo Glisenti with whom I worked at the time of my collaboration with Mayor Letizia Moratti (and of the race for the assignment of ExpoMilano), Davide Rampello curator of the project and the walk, and the main authors of the contents the visionary architects Italo Rota and Carlo Ratti, already Superstudio guests during the Design Weeks with their projects for Samsung and Lamborghini, as always extremely helpful and empathetic.
Top top professionals, nothing to say. “Connecting minds, creating future” is the title of the general ExpoDubai event. The result was hit by Italy in full.