New Zealand Pavilion — World Expo 2020 Dubai (2021)
We designed, engineered and installed a large hanging mechanical installation for the New Zealand Pavilion at World Expo 2020 Dubai — a suspended kinetic centrepiece in collaboration with Jasmax for a people and place pavilion experience.
Collaborators
Client: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE)
Lead architect: Jasmax
Design collaborators: Haumi, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi (Whanganui iwi), Workshop e, Kaynemaile, Mott MacDonald
Creative Production Partner: Human Dynamo Workshop
World Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates brought together nearly 200 nations for one of the largest global gatherings of the decade. Aotearoa NZ's Pavilion, themed Care for People and Place, was led by Jasmax and grounded in kaitiakitanga: the Māori concept of guardianship, and the understanding that people and nature are one.
Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui River, was the unifying storytelling element that carried visitors through the pavilion experience.
Engineering at scale
Human Dynamo Workshop was engaged to design, engineer, fabricate and install a large hanging mechanical installation suspended from the pavilion ceiling.
Delivering a suspended kinetic installation for an international pavilion is engineering as much as art. The piece needed to hang safely above the flow of thousands of daily visitors, perform reliably across the six-month run of the Expo in Dubai, and hold up to close scrutiny from a global audience.
Our team led the mechanical design, precision fabrication, movement systems, and rigging, working closely with Jasmax and the wider pavilion team to ensure the installation performed exactly as intended, every day, for the duration of the event.
For Human Dynamo Workshop, this work demonstrated our ability to deliver large-scale, complex work on an international stage.
Image credit: Jasmax
