Sajjad Ahmad, Deputy Business Editor

Competence-based Italy, champion of innovation, sustainability and training takes off for Expo Dubai with a programme of international initiatives and events dedicated to Italy’s innate capability of connecting peoples and intelligences through beauty, know-how and creativity.

The Italy Pavilion at Expo Dubai, with the participation 70 institutional partners, 50 business sponsors, 15 Regions and 30 Universities, will promote a vast programme of multilateral forums and high-level dialogues to analyse the challenges that are most pressing for humankind, indicating solutions capable of generating growth, innovation and international collaboration.

Addressing key issues ranging from the climate, Space, urban development, promoting intercultural dialogue, to the challenges innovation and digitalisation in the healthcare sector, in agriculture and in the blue economy, the Agenda of multilateral forums will convene high-ranking policy-makers, international experts, young students, and representatives of the world of business, to discuss these themes and to highlight Italy’s contribution to new collaborative models on the principal issues on the UN Agenda 2030.

Venice is the highlight of the opening week of events: The first thematic week of Expo Dubai is dedicated to “Climate and Biodiversity”: at the Italy Pavilion, the theme will be developed in several initiatives focused on Venice, brought as an example of a local laboratory and an international model of how to combat the effects of climate change and promote innovative environmental transition processes and cultural and social innovation. On the 3rd of October, one of the two foruams dedicated to the lagoon city will launch the candidacy of Venice as world capital of sustainability on the Expo’s global platform.

Highlights of Italy Pavilion:

. The pavilion was designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota Building Office, with F&M Ingegneria and Matteo Gatto.

 . Utilises three real-sized boat hulls for the pavilion roof, which could potentially set sail after the event. The boat hulls also refer to the historical connections between the Italian and Arabian Peninsulas, thus hinting at the themes of both Italy’s participation in the Expo (“Beauty Connects People”) and Expo Dubai 2020 as a whole

(“Connecting minds, creating the future”).

. It features a multimedia façade made of more than 70 kilometers of nautical rope, and uses an advanced system for climate mitigation that constitutes an alternative to air conditioning. The nautical ropes are produced in recycled plastic, using the equivalent of almost two million water bottles. The project strives to showcase more sustainable ways to cool our buildings and cities in the future.

. Belvedere, a round structure topped by a dome, covered by wild herbs of the Mediterranean maquis, which evokes Renaissance gardens. Here, spirulina microalgae, cultivated by renewable energy company TOLO Green, enables the ecological treatment of air through the biofixation of the carbon dioxide emitted by visitors.

. Innovation Space dedicated to technological research, the Second Sun and Second Moon digital installations which create a crescendo of light effects closely linked to the visitors’ emotions in real-time.

. Theatre of Memory with a 3D-printed copy of Michelangelo’s David developed by the Museum of the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence and the Ministry of Culture in partnership with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Florence.

. Located at the entrance of the Pavilion and suspended at full height over a body of water is an installation and a clear reference to Eni’s concrete commitment towards a sustainable future, including possible fixation and enhancement of carbon dioxide. Titled “Braiding the Future”, the space focuses on biofixation of carbon dioxide. It recreates a microalgae cultivation using a spectacular cascade of

20-meter-high technological liana vines. Within each of the luminescent lianas flow the microalgae: the see-through circuitbecomes a spectacular interpretation of the production technology of these unicellular organisms, which produce high-value compounds through a natural photosynthesis process.

. “Solar Coffee Garden” – the cafe features a human-sized Moka coffee machine – a reproduction of the 1979’s Carmencita Moka by Marco Zanuso, one of the icons of Italian design  which is powered by solar energy. The cafe is conceived of as an immersive experience through all the various stages of coffee production, from the seed to the cup.

Its counter is made with discarded coffee and waste beans set in a tactile surface of eco-resin. Framed by a suspended garden of coffee plants, the installation integrates technological and natural elements and showcases the importance of reusable components in a transparent supply chain.

. The path inside the Italian Pavilion is enriched by a series of green elements from more than 160 different species that live inside the building.