迪拜世博会，迟来的盛会

由专筑网江鹏，小R编译

世博会每五年举办一次，通常从5月1日持续到10月31日。考虑到波斯湾夏季的炎热气候，2020年迪拜世博会原定于10月开幕。然后，由于疫情推迟举办一年，这对包括美国在内的没有按时完成安装场馆的国家来说是天赐良机。尽管如此，迪拜世博会仍被命名为“迪拜2020”。而关于世博会的入口大门，英国设计师阿西夫·汗（Asif Khan）用足够长的碳纤维线制作了三个入口，由机器人缠绕成优雅的格子面板。在每天开始和结束时，有六层楼那么高的门会开启与关闭。

World Expos, which are held once every five years, normally run from May 1 through October 31. Given the summer heat in the Persian Gulf, the 2020 Dubai Expo was scheduled to open in October. Then the pandemic led to a year’s delay, which was a godsend for countries – including the U.S. – that hadn’t finished their installations on time. Still labeled Dubai 2020, the Expo is now expected to open its gates on October 1. And what gates! The British designer Asif Khan created a trio of portals made of carbon fiber threads (enough to reach from here to the sun) wound by robots into elegant latticework panels. Doors as high as a six-story building will swing open and closed at the start and end of every day.


Photo © Hélène Binet

实际上，除了由芝加哥AS(Adrian Smith)和GG（Gordon Gill）建筑事务所设计的425英尺直径的精致穹顶外，展览场地内可能没有什么比它更壮观的作品了。圆顶下的广场预期设计将比周围地区低4到8摄氏度，部分原因是由于使用了混凝土元素作为热质量设计。令人惊叹的是在自行支撑的钢穹顶内部的视频投影，这个景点被称为“世界上最大的360度沉浸式投影”。

Indeed, there may be nothing as spectacular inside the fairgrounds, with the possible exception of the filigreed, 425-foot-diameter dome designed by Chicago’s Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture as the Expo’s centerpiece. The plaza under the dome is expected to be 4 to 8 degrees Celsius cooler than the surrounding area, due, in part, to the use of concrete elements at and below grade as thermal masses. Video projections on the inside of the self-supporting steel dome are stunning – the attraction is being billed as “the world’s largest 360-degree immersive projection.”


Photo © Dubai Expo 2020

但遗憾的是，世博局建造的两座酒店和三座办公楼离穹顶太近，抢了穹顶的风头。在芝加哥的合伙人戈登·吉尔（Gordon Gill）表明，那些建筑并不困扰他，因为酒店和办公楼是他们设计的。他相信圆穹顶和五座建筑在世博会结束后仍将屹立不倒，因为他的公司还计划在2022年3月底世博会闭幕后将这里作为创新区。

But, sadly, the Expo Authority built two hotels and three office buildings so close to the dome that they steal some of its thunder. Reached by phone in Chicago, partner Gordon Gill said those buildings didn’t bother him, “since we designed them.” And he is sure the dome and the five buildings will remain standing after the fair, since his firm also created the plan for using the site as an innovation district after the Expo closes at the end of March 2022.


Photo © Dubai Expo 2020

世博会本身由HOK、Populous和Arup事务所共同规划，占地近1100英亩，还不包括附近可停放2.6万辆汽车的停车场。但是，一旦游客们把车停好，走过阿西夫·汗设计的大门，交通选择就会受到限制。在大多数情况下，有几英里长的小路，会被光伏织物遮挡。巴士将在世博会周边活动，而且可以提前预订数量有限的私人高尔夫球车和司机。1964-65年的纽约世界博览会提供了六种出行方式，包括头顶上的单轨列车和单轨上方的缆车，以及地面上的几种有轨电车，相比之下，迪拜相对缺乏选择性，似乎有些讽刺，因为流动性是世博会的三大主题之一，其他主题是机遇和可持续性。每个展馆都有一个巨大的主题馆。这座由福斯特建筑事务所（Foster and Partners）设计的移动大楼包含了被世博会称为世界上最大的客运电梯。位于马德里的AGI建筑事务所设计的机遇馆专注于自我提升。

由Grimshaw设计的可持续性（Sustainability）项目号称在其屋顶和周围数十棵“太阳能树”上安装了4912块光伏板，这些“太阳能树”是碳纤维装置，直径60英尺，能跟踪太阳。太阳能电池板目的是生产出与建筑消耗量相同的能量，尽管在沙漠环境中高温和灰尘能减少光伏电池板的输出。Grimshaw事务所的主席Andrew Whalley解释说：“消耗大量能源的水族馆被否决了，我们必须平衡我们的能量生产和我使用能力。”TD事务所（Thinc Design）的创始人兼负责人Tom Hennes表示，他和世博局都认为：“太多的事实和数据会让人反感，所以展览会考虑更多的情感因素。它们带你踏上一段探索自己价值观的旅程，不是对你简单的指手画脚，而是展现一个超现实的世界，并问你希望这个世界是什么样子的问题。”

The Expo itself, master planned by HOK with Populous and Arup, covers nearly 1,100 acres, not counting the adjacent parking lots for 26,000 cars. But once visitors have parked and walked through Khan’s vast portals, transportation options will be limited. Mostly, there are miles of paths, shaded by canopies of photovoltaic fabric. Buses will move around the perimeter of the Expo, and a limited number of individual golf carts, with drivers, can be booked in advance. By contrast, the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair offered half a dozen ways to get around, including a monorail overhead and gondolas above the monorail, and several kinds of trams at grade. The relative lack of options in Dubai seems ironic because mobility is one of the three themes of the Expo (the others are opportunity and sustainability). Each is represented by a massive theme pavilion. The mobility building, by Foster and Partners, contains what the Expo is calling the biggest passenger elevator in the world. The opportunity pavilion by Madrid-based AGi Architects is focused on self-improvement.
Sustainability, designed by Grimshaw, boasts 4,912 photovoltaic panels on its roof and on dozens of surrounding “solar trees," elegant carbon fiber contraptions, 60 feet across, that track the sun. The panels are intended to produce as much energy as the building uses (though both high temperatures and dust are known to reduce the output of PV panels in desert environments). Aquariums, which use a lot of energy, were nixed, said Andrew Whalley, chairman of Grimshaw, explaining, “We had to balance what we can produce and what we use.” Tom Hennes, founder and principal of Thinc Design, says he and the Expo Authority agreed that “too many facts and figures turn people off, so the exhibitions have a more emotional context. They take you on a journey into your values, not wagging a finger at you, but presenting a hyper-real vision of the world and asking questions about what you want the world to be.”


Photo by Tom Hennes © Thinc Design

各国家和公司的展馆被组织成相应的三个主题区域。在另一个看似复古的举动中，每个展馆都占据了自己的地块，似乎不存在对这个巨大场地进行密集化或城市化的尝试规划。有192个国家参与，其效果就像一个郊区的办公园区。在历届世博会上，发展中国家共用公共展馆，而在这里，阿联酋人还为资金短缺的国家支付单个建筑的费用，令人难以置信的是，美国也在其中。

关于美国馆，在机遇主题领域：2018年，美国国务院选择了科罗拉多州的Fentress建筑事务所来设计它，一年后，Fentress事务所无故退出项目。最终，美国国务院将这个工作交给了澳大利亚的伍兹·巴戈特（Woods Bagot）事务所，该事务所在美国各地设有办事处。美国国务院还与加州的展览设计公司TG（Thinkwell Group）合作，以解决“生命、自由和追求未来”（Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of the Future）的主题。据英国媒体“中东之眼”介绍，该展馆将以火星之旅和一个理想的未来城市为特色，实现车流量最小的目的。这一切都是由阿联酋支付的，因为国会不会挪用这笔资金。关于阿联酋人会得到了什么回报的传言甚嚣尘上。

Country and company pavilions are organized into zones corresponding to the three themes. In another seemingly retro move, each pavilion occupies its own parcel of land, with attempts at densifying or urbanizing the vast site seemingly non-existent. With 192 countries participating, the effect is like a suburban office park on acid. At past Expos, developing countries shared communal pavilions; here, adding to the sprawl, the Emiratis paid for individual buildings for cash-strapped nations, including – incredibly – the U.S.
About the U.S. Pavilion, which is in the opportunity sector: In 2018, the state department chose Colorado’s Fentress Architects to design it; a year later, Fentress dropped out, without explanation. Eventually, the State Department gave the job to Australia-based Woods Bagot, which has offices across the U.S., and worked with California-based exhibition designers Thinkwell Group to address the theme of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of the Future. According to Middle East Eye, the pavilion will feature a journey to Mars and an idealized future city with minimal car traffic. It was all paid for by the Emiratis, because Congress wouldn’t appropriate the funds. Rumors of what the Emiratis got in return are rampant.


Photo by Tom Hennes © Thinc Design


Photo by Tom Hennes © Thinc Design

谈论最多的建筑包括阿联酋馆由圣地亚哥Spanish-Swiss事务所建筑师卡拉特拉瓦设计,一个150000平方英尺的猎鹰飞行。与其美学相反的是奥地利馆，由38个巨大的锥状烟囱构成，因此减少了对空调的需求，由维也纳公司设计。曾在2010年世博会上因托马斯·赫斯维克(Thomas Heatherwick)的“种子库”而轰动一时的英国，可能会因制作设计师埃斯·德夫林（Es Devlin）的展馆再次获得成功。这座圆锥形的建筑由巨大的木条建造而成，它的入口是一个名为“渴望迷宫”的空间。游客发的文字会被电脑转化成诗歌，并投射到建筑物的外部。

The most talked about buildings include the UAE pavilion by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, a 150,000-square-foot impression of a falcon in flight, and its aesthetic opposite, an Austrian pavilion made of 38 huge, truncated cones, acting as chimneys (and thus reducing the need for air conditioning) by the Viennese firm quercraft. The U.K., which made a splash at the 2010 Expo with Thomas Heatherwick’s seed vault, could strike gold again with a pavilion by production designer Es Devlin. A cone-shaped building made of giant wooden slats, it is entered through a labyrinth called the Maze of Aspiration (Expo people really talk the way). Words texted by visitors will be turned into poems by a computer and projected onto the building’s exterior.


Photo © Hélène Binet

迪拜世博会的组织者最初预计6个月的参观人数将达到2500万。新冠疫情可能会改变这一切预测，每天都会不一样。但是游客们将会为200多座建筑而眼花缭乱，其中有几座肯定是鲜为人知的公司出人意料的成功之作，甚至可能激发孩子们成为建筑师的兴趣。

The organizers of the Dubai Expo originally projected attendance of 25 million over six months. Covid could change all that, with projections varying from one day to the next. But visitors will be dazzled by some 200 buildings, of which a few are bound to be unexpected triumphs by little-known firms that may even inspire children to become architects.