British designer Es Devlin has unveiled a cross-laminated timber pavilion, which is the UK’s contribution to the Dubai Expo 2020. The UK Pavilion has been designed to display a series of AI-generated poems during the international event, which opens in Dubai this week.
Constructed from cross-laminated timber, the cone-shaped pavilion has a circular façade made from protruding slats. Poems created from words submitted by visitors and generated by AI will be written in English and Arabic using LED lights on the façade.(1)
“The pavilion is an act of European and international collaboration: its cross-laminated timber is thoroughly European: grown and assembled in Austria and Italy,” said Devlin. “The LED tiles were engineered in Belgium and manufactured in China, the algorithm was engineered in California, the list goes on…” (1)
During her talk about how her inspiration for this idea came about, Designer Es Devlin mentioned that the idea is inspired by one of Stephen Hawking’s final endeavors, a global competition to create a “breakthrough message,” collectively put together by people from all over the world to be sent into space to be an introduction for our planet to other civilizations in the universe. Es’ vision is the UK Pavilion serving as a meeting place for people from around the world to take part in a global project, showcasing Britain’s advancements in AI technologies and its long literary legacy, while ultimately transcending national identities.
The Dubai Expo is the latest World Expo – international exhibitions that showcase architecture and innovation by countries from all over the world and take place every five years. Dubai will be followed by the Expo 2025 Osaka in four years time.
Photography is by Ry Galloway and Alin Consstantin, courtesy of Es Devlin.
(1) https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/29/dubai-expo-2020-uk-pavilion-es-devlin/#:~:text=British%20designer%20Es%20Devlin%20has,opens%20in%20Dubai%20this%20week.&text=%22The%20building%20is%20the%20exhibit%22%2C%20explained%20Devlin.
