Terra – the Sustainability Pavilion (Expo 2020)

Building on the success of the World Expo, Expo City Dubai is the go-to destination for globally significant events, including COP 28, and supports the UAE’s wider diversification and packed with educational, cultural and entertainment offerings, Expo City Dubai celebrates human innovation, imagination and ingenuity and inspires future generations 

Terra; the Sustainability Pavilion takes visitors on an immersive and emotional journey through the wonders of the natural world and inspire them to create a better, more sustainable future. The Pavilion highlights the urgency of addressing negative environmental impacts, caused in large part by human behaviour, through an engaging, playful and personal experience that is designed to empower visitors, particularly children, to understand their impact on the environment, break the cycle of consumerism, and become agents of change.

• A walk-through time in an Arabian wadi, where cheetahs and mega elephants once roamed.

• Huge installations inspired by iconic fairground attractions that explain key sustainability issues and concepts, including a giant balance maze requiring visitors to collaborate to bring the Earth into balance.

• An interactive walk through the roots of the forest, where every footstep affects the “wood-wide-web”’, the amazing symbiotic network of roots and fungi that allow trees to communicate and share resources.

• An exploration “under the ocean” to discover the beauty and the mysteries contained within.

• A journey through consumption halls, uncovering the hidden harmful impacts of our choices.

• A meeting with “Gnasher”; a giant consumption machine that shows how natural resources are being destroyed to make consumer products.

• An encounter with a deep-sea fish whose system is clogged with discarded plastic waste.

• A series of “Would You Rather?” scenarios to challenge visitors to consider how individual behaviours directly impact our planet.

• The Laboratory of Future Values– a hopeful space that presents solutions to the challenges, issues and worries raised earlier in the experience.

• Terra is also hosting entertaining and enriching events, such as science shows, documentaries and cultural performances that reflect the Sustainability subtheme.

• The pavilion, has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum green building standards; the highest available accreditation for sustainable architecture.

• The building’s technology generates enough energy to charge 890,000 mobile phones per year.

• The grounds of Terra features innovative irrigation techniques, including a greywater recycling system, and native and desert adapted plants aiming to reduce water use by 75%.

• A 130-metre wide canopy– about the size of five whales lined up– will use energy from the sun to generate electricity during the day.

• More than 1,050 solar panels, designed to produce four gigawatt hours per year of electricity. 

• Energy trees equipped with solar panels will rotate to face the sun, like a sunflower. 

• A water tree that will produce water from the surrounding air.

• The orientation of the funnel-shape of the pavilion canopy creates air flows that naturally ventilate the pavilion courtyard, as well as letting in ambient light.

• The pavilion is sited partially below ground, meaning that the pavilion will generally be cooler than the ambient temperature, while its canopy also shades the pavilion from the sun.

• Solar energy will be used to sterilise water and remove micro-bio-contaminants.