The architecture of Ireland’s pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai

Last Thursday, 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 – which 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. At Expo Milan in 2015, they created a curved, all wooden structure, floating like a boat in full sail in a pool water, which won the Towards a Sustainable Expo Award under the Design and Materials Category, for demonstrating actions to reduce their Pavilion’s environmental impact. Sustainability and environmental considerations had informed every aspect of the building, from the façade’s curve following the path of the sun and providing shading within, to using locally sourced timber for a reduced carbon footprint, incorporating a much-coveted roof garden and finally to re-using the timber panels to build the Italian pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale the following year.

Their approach to designing the Irish pavilion for Dubai 2020 similarly 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.

-ENDS-

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Notes to Editors

The Office of the State/Principal Architect is responsible for leading and managing the OPW’s architectural team, with oversight of the architectural input to construction projects, maintenance of the quality of the fabric of the State’s property portfolio and the conservation of heritage properties in State care, as well as being the main advisor to the Government in relation to architectural matters. The OPW architectural team provides our clients with design, construction and support services that meet their requirements.

The OPW has received many architectural awards from the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI), Architectural Association (AAI) and OPUS, and has won the prestigious Europa Nostra Medal and the European Award for Cultural Heritage.

Ciarán O’Connor was appointed State Architect and Principal Architect in the Office of Public Works by the Irish Government in 2012. He worked in Germany and Canada prior to joining the Office of Public Works. Ciaran is a member of the OPW Management Board, responsible for the Major Projects Unit and the Brexit Infrastructure Unit. He also leads and directs the Architectural and Professional Services who have responsibilities for a wide variety of works, including new build, conservation and landscape projects. A Fellow of the RIAI, he is also its current President for the time period 2020-2021.

Gerard Harvey is an Assistant Principal Architect in the Office of Public Works (OPW). He is currently the head of the Office of the State Architect within the OPW. This role involves the delivery of a portfolio of projects, master planning and the setting of architectural policy both at an organisational and national level. He holds a degree in Architecture and a postgraduate diploma in Conservation. Gerard has 25 years of construction related experience and has worked on a wide range of award-winning architectural projects. He has designed public projects both in Ireland and internationally in New York, Milan and Dubai. In 2006 he was part of the team who received the Europa Nostra Award for Cultural Heritage as project architect on the restoration of the Palm House Complex at The National Botanic Gardens. He is currently a member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.