Taking place from 01 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, the Russian pavilion for EXPO Dubai 2020 answers essential questions such as "how do we find our place in an interconnected world?" and "how can we better understand each other despite our differences?".In the Russian Pavilion designed by Speech, the visitor will hear stories about Russia’s scientific and cultural heritage carefully preserved over the last centuries. Moreover, the user will also see works of the brightest minds behind the latest cutting-edge technologies made in Russia and aimed at making our future better.

In the pavilion designed by Speech, the exhibition route is divided into three thematic districts: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability. Compositionally this is reflected in the design of the pavilion, which is born under the idea of constant movement.To represent two hemispheres, one inside the other, the project is composed of two domes that embody the image of the planet Russia and symbolize totality and universality, distributed over three main floors and two mezzanines.

Description of project by SpeechEXPO 2020 takes place in Dubai.

The exhibition territory is divided into three thematic districts: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability. Russian Pavilion’s moto is ‘Creative mind: driving the future’. Situated in the Mobility district, the Russia Pavilion develops precisely this theme. In embodying the image of the national pavilion, Sergei Tchoban, the architect of the project, set out to convey in the building’s compositional design the idea of constant movement as the prerequisite for unstoppable progressive development, creation, and progress. The pavilion is in the form of two hemispheres, one inside the other. The two hemispheres are domes embodying the image of Planet Russia and symbolizing wholeness and universality.

"With our project,we set out to tackle several very important objectives. First, to propose a spectacular volume whose architecture would express the theme of this section of the exhibition and simultaneously contain associations with Russia as a great country. One such association is the way the small domed volume sits inside the larger: this may be modern and emphatically dynamic, but it also resembles the traditional Russian matryoshka. Secondly, we wanted to give visitors the most comfortable possible conditions not just when viewing the exhibition but also when waiting to do so. The space under the lower dome serves as a convenient and capacious ante-area; it is well protected from the scorching sun and the heat and is packed with a variety of public functions."

— Sergei Tchoban, the project’s author.

The building’s façades are made from a multiplicity of intertwined thread-like pipes of different colours that express the ideas of movement, development of meanings and knowledge, orientation on the future, and a theme which is very important for the modern world: the harmonious co-existence of energies and phenomena of very diverse kinds. The motif of lines of different colours outlining the building’s shape is intended, says Sergei Tchoban, to refer to the tradition of the Russian Avant-garde and the ‘exprimatic’ method – the use of a free treatment of line to generate new forms – invented by the brilliant Constructivist architect Yakov Chernikhov. Technically, the ‘threads’ are made from aluminium tubes with a diameter of 8 cm, which are bent at different angle and braid the volume of the pavilion in several directions. The total length of these elements is 46 km, the total number of segments is more than 1000. After the tubes were manufactured and bent to the definite angle with the help of specially designed equipment, they were coated with a colored polymer composition that reliably protects aluminium from burning out in the sun. There are 6 colours used in the project, which, due to the countless number of combinations on the surface of the facade, form a very motley, constantly changing its palette surface.With a total floor area of more than 3600 square metres, the pavilion has three main storeys and two mezzanine levels. This has made it possible to organize inside it all the functions required: exhibition spaces, cafés and restaurants, and spaces for business meetings. The compositional idea of two domes placed one inside the other makes it possible to satisfy the main climatic requirement for such a building in the UAE: the complex must have a comfortable and shaded waiting area. Abutting this are a space for temporary exhibitions, a restaurant, a souvenir shop, and a multi-height hall with escalators and lifts leading to the main exhibition level. The larger of the two domes forms an exhibition space with an attached VIP room, a conference centre (equipped with viewing terraces), and meeting rooms that provide ideal conditions for doing business over the entire course of the exhibition. The pavilion is surrounded by a decorative pool of water which helps maintain a comfortable microclimate around the building as well as serves as a gigantic mirror reflecting the Russian Pavilion.The central part of the exhibition is the immersive performance ‘The Mechanics of Wonder’ created and completed by Konstantin Petrov and his company Simpateka Entertainment Group.

"Science is international. It happens sometimes that a breakthrough idea travels a lot before turning into a useful technology somewhere beyond its birthplace. The exposition brings attention to the creative efforts of generations of Russian scientists and engineers and their contribution to the betterment of the world. This exposition pays tribute to the human brain. It is the science of the brain that will bring us the most important discoveries of the 21st century. These discoveries will have a deep impact on our consciousness and our minds and will transform our lives. The more we understand the workings of the brain the more we admire it. We learn to apply the principles of the brain and to built them upon across different fields of human endeavor, from specific technologies to societal changes."

— Konstantin Petrov.

This high-tech multimedia exhibition has got an interactive sculpture of the human brain. The 7.5-meter-long and 5.5-meter-high art object is located on the third floor of the pavilion: it seems to float in a 13.5-meter-high space. A separate part of the pavilion's exposition is reserved for representative offices of Russian technology corporations that use various applied versions of artificial intelligence in their activities.

PAVILION DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Architects: SPEECH

Area: 3630 m²

Year: 2021

Photographs: Ilya Ivanov

Project Authors: Sergei Tchoban, Igor Chlenov, Aleksey Ilin

Project Architects: Anton Chernyshev, Marina Kuznetskaya, Darya Krotkova

Idea And Design For Exhibition Display, Development Of The Theme For The

Pavilion: Konstantin Petrov, Simpateka Entertainment Group

Client: Minpromtorg (Ministry of Trade and Industry of Russia)

General Contractor : Crocus Group

Facade: Inventure

City: Dubai

Country: United Arab Emirates

Text description provided by the architects. The exhibition territory is divided into three thematic districts: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability. Russian Pavilion’s motto is ‘Creative mind: driving the future’.

Situated in the Mobility district, the Russia Pavilion develops precisely this theme. In embodying the image of the national pavilion, Sergei Tchoban, the architect of the project, set out to convey in the building’s compositional design the idea of constant movement as the prerequisite for unstoppable progressive development, creation, and progress. The pavilion is in the form of two hemispheres, one inside the other. The two hemispheres are domes embodying the image of Planet Russia and symbolizing wholeness and universality.

‘With our project,’ says Sergei Tchoban, the project’s author, ‘we set out to tackle several very important objectives. First, to propose a spectacular volume whose architecture would express the theme of this section of the exhibition and simultaneously contain associations with Russia as a great country. One such association is the way the small domed volume sits inside the larger: this may be modern and emphatically dynamic, but it also resembles the traditional Russian matryoshka. Secondly, we wanted to give visitors the most comfortable possible conditions not just when viewing the exhibition but also when waiting to do so. The space under the lower dome serves as a convenient and capacious ante-area; it is well protected from the scorching sun and the heat and is packed with a variety of public functions.’

The central part of the exhibition is the immersive performance ‘The Mechanics of Wonder’ created and completed by Konstantin Petrov and his company Simpateka Entertainment Group. ‘Science is international. It happens sometimes that a breakthrough idea travels a lot before turning into a useful technology somewhere beyond its birthplace. The exposition brings attention to the creative efforts of generations of Russian scientists and engineers and their contribution to the betterment of the world. This exposition pays tribute to the human brain. It is the science of the brain that will bring us the most important discoveries of the 21st century. These discoveries will have a deep impact on our consciousness and our minds and will transform our lives. The more we understand the workings of the brain the more we admire it. We learn to apply the principles of the brain and to built them upon across different fields of human endeavor, from specific technologies to societal changes’ – tells Konstantin Petrov about it. This high-tech multimedia exhibition has got an interactive sculpture of the human brain. The 7.5-meter-long and 5.5-meter-high art object are located on the third floor of the pavilion: it seems to float in a 13.5-meter-high space. A separate part of the pavilion's exposition is reserved for representative offices of Russian technology corporations that use various applied versions of artificial intelligence in their activities.

Science is international. It happens sometimes that a breakthrough idea travels a lot before turning into a useful technology somewhere beyond its birthplace. The exposition brings attention to the creative efforts of generations of Russian scientists and engineers and their contribution to the betterment of the world. This exposition pays tribute to the human brain. It is the science of the brain that will bring us the most important discoveries of the 21st century. These discoveries will have a deep impact on our consciousness and our minds and will transform our lives. The more we understand the workings of the brain the more we admire it. We learn to apply the principles of the brain and to built them upon across different fields of human endeavor, from specific technologies to societal changes.

You may wonder why the brain is the centerpiece of the exposition:

The brain teaches us an important lesson: billions of nerve cells, as peculiar as they are, come together to build the mind, which is sustainable, mobile, and presents us with endless opportunities. Nature can do it, and so can we. Hence the “Mechanics of Wonder,” a call for human cooperation for the sake of our common future.

The brain and the mind:

— The brain is an organ and a very complicated one. It’s also very beautiful — just have a look. The mind is our ability to think and comprehend the world.

— Our mind is immensely complicated. Still, there are some skills and properties of the mind, common to all of us, that are particularly fascinating.

— We call them the ‘5 minds’, the five most important aspects of human cognition. They are the learning mind, the creative mind, the emotional mind, the social mind, and the cultural mind.

The 5 minds:

— The learning mind allows us to learn new things with mind-blowing speed. When we learn, the number of neurons doesn’t change, but there appear new connections between them. Therefore a brain of an adult human being is the result of years and years of non-stop learning, our neural networks are the product of this process. And nothing in the world compares to the brain when it comes to effective learning.

— The creative mind owes its existence to the fact that inventing something new is a process similar to learning physiologically-wise. Both processes come to the building of new connections between existing neural networks. That is why (what a pleasant thing to know) we are indigenous inventors. It’s as natural for us as learning to walk.

— The emotional mind. Emotions directly affect the way we think and remember things. We have a hard time remembering something that didn’t move us emotionally. Emotions are really important, and that is why the brain is very good at reading them. We not only know what we’re feeling, but we also sense the feelings of other people. We’re empathic beings and we couldn’t survive without it.

— The cultural mind. Being empathic learners that we are, it is natural for us to soak everything from the people who surround us. That is why we belong to different cultures and different languages. The culture of people around us becomes our own culture and then affects the ways we perceive and comprehend the world. It can get things complicated, but it also enriches us. Were we all the same, our cooperation wouldn’t be that productive.

— Also, we have the social mind.

The social mind

— We’re very social. So much social, in fact, that we experience prolonged solitude as pain. The same parts of the brain process both pain and loneliness. (it was proven in actual experiments!)

And it’s not even the whole story. Because the very architecture of brain connections is similar to the structure of human social interactions. As neurons make up networks and hypernetworks of our knowledge, people make networks of communities. Our common knowledge – the progress of the humanity – increases much like our individual knowledge. That is why we’re supposed to communicate more, cooperate more, and never stop exchanging ideas.

So this beautiful oversized brain reminds us of the need for cooperation.

4. The exhibits gallery and the infographics:

After the show, we invite you to the gallery: In the gallery there are installations that can be divided into two groups.

The first one supports the content of the main multimedia performance. These are the installations "6 Degrees of separation", "Tag of words" about the connection of neural networks and "The Rabbit Hole", where you can see the world as if through the eyes of 5 different animals, located among extremely scaled brain neurons metaphorically depicting a forest. Have a look inside the hollows for a series of short videos on how the human brain is constructed.

The installations of the second group represent Russian technology corporations that are using different applied versions of artificial intelligence in their projects. Here are the installations of the companies Rosatom, Rostec, Russia Creates, the USM holding and the installation devoted to Moscow being nominated as a candidate city for helding Expo 2030.

5. The core message:

— Humanity progresses at a fantastic speed. And further progress cannot be grounded in a single idea or invention anymore. Nor can it rely on the lone genius working out of the garage. The world is just too complex for that. No person can invent a vaccine or build a space station singlehandedly.

We have to join our minds to move forward. It is a very simple and at the same time very bright idea.

— In Russia, there are about 200 ethnic groups and 140 million people. We are used to exchanging ideas and we are ready to collaborate with anybody for the sake of our common future. Let’s continue to cooperate and exchange ideas.

Any decent future for humanity can be summed up by just one word: COOPERATION

Offering visitors a chance to see what future minds will be able to achieve

How do we find our places in the world? How can we better understand each other despite our differences? How will we connect people and minds without moving them physically?

The Russia pavilion will help visitors to answer these questions and give them an insight into how the country sees the future.

Showcasing Russia’s extensive knowledge in various fields, the pavilion will take visitors to the next level, where they will be able to experience the possibilities of tomorrow.

ARCHITECT: Tchoban SPEECH, Simpateka Entertainment Group

Russian pavilion to showcase diverse creative talents before international audience

Anjana Kumar, Senior Reporter

Dubai: Organisers of the Russia Pavilion have unveiled their theme for Expo 2020 Dubai.

Going under the name ‘Creative Mind: Driving the Future’, the pavilion will host an exhibition that will show case everything Russian.

“Russian creativity is unique. Russia has always been an infinite source of great creative minds, inventors, artists and musicians who have been brought to this world over the course of several centuries. From Russian writer Tolstoy, Russian scientist Mendeleev and artists of the Russian avant-garde art scene, Kandinsky and Rodchenko, to the famous engineers Sikorsky and Korolev — they all created something that we cannot imagine our life without. Russian creativity keeps inspiring people around the world today and we want to bring that to Expo 2020 Dubai,” said Alexander Getman, director of the Russia Pavilion.

Alexander explained: “At the Russian Pavilion you will hear stories about Russia’s scientific and cultural heritage. Visitors will see works of the country’s brightest minds behind the latest cutting-edge technologies made in Russia and aimed at making our future better.”

He said the pavilion will be ready in two months’ time. “The ground was broken in January.”

About the design and construction

“A spherical structure will cover an area spanning 4,562.7 square meters and will be 27 metres-high,” he said.

For the record, the Russian pavilion is located within Expo 2020 Dubai’s Mobility District. The pavilion has been designed by architects Tchoban Speech and Simpateka Entertainment Group.

Alexander confirmed construction was progressing well. “It should be completed in agreed time frame in three months. Most of the façade elements will be manufactured using the latest technologies many of which will be used for the first time in the construction of such engineering structures,” he added.

Taking place from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East, Africa or South Asia, serving an area with a collective population of nearly three billion and a gross domestic product of more than $7.4 trillion (Dh27.21 trillion).

Expo 2020 is expected to see 25 million visitors over the six months of show time with over 190 participating nations.

https://gulfnews.com/

Saman Haziq.

Colour, creativity and culture will be the highlight of the Russian pavilion at Expo 2020 that is to open doors on October 1 this year.