The U.A.E. Pavilion, to be revealed at the 2015 Milan Expo, will showcase the principles of the traditional desert city. The pavilion’s interior of self-shaded streets evokes the experience of the UAE’s ancient communities, while demonstrating the natural energy efficiency of their compact urban form.

Visitors will be drawn into the site via a canyon-like space, defined by two undulating 12-metre-high walls. Influenced by ancient planning principles, the paths within the pavilion will evoke the narrow pedestrian streets and courtyards of the ancient desert city. The walls will continue throughout the site in a series of parallel waves, unifying the visitor space within a dynamic formal language designed to portray the ridges and texture of sand dunes.

Arabian Profile, in collaboration with CanBuild, will design and construct the entire development in Glass Reinforced Concrete (GRC). The final and complete design of the structure will be confirmed prior to the expo itself. Upon completion of the exhibition the Pavilion will be dismantled, shipped back to the UAE and then permanently erected in the Masdar region of Abu Dhabi.