Expo Entry Portals

The portals are a futuristic exploration of the traditional mashrabiya, an elegant design element used across the region to control light and airflow.

Each portal’s remarkable appearance comes from being woven entirely from strands of ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber composite that lend incredible structural strength. This enables the ethereal portal structures to stand 21 meters high and 30 meters long, without any additional support. From afar the portals appear to be composed of translucent planes, which up close visitors discover are made from hundreds of fine lines of structure.

The portals feature two vast doors – each door is 21 meters high and 10.5 meters wide – which will be opened every morning of the 173 days of Expo 2020 Dubai in a symbolic act of welcoming the world. They lead visitors to tree-filled arrival courtyards, also designed by Khan, in each of the three Expo 2020 districts: Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.

The project is the outcome of a three-year iterative design process working hand in hand with a manufacturer specializing in large format carbon-composite components and an aircraft engineer. The final geometric pattern resolves the requirements of structural strength against material efficiency, wind permeability, shading quantity, and manufacturing time.

Adding to the rich lineage of innovative structures from past World Expos, these portals are a future form of architecture which is inspired by the aesthetic of the region.

Khan’s wider Public Realm design interweaves a six-kilometer linear park with the entire length of concourse, alongside a running track, walking paths of soft and hard materials and places to rest. Among these are a seating project, designed in collaboration with Lebanese typographer Lara Captan, water features, plants and trees which complete the environment. Representing the lines left on the desert as people journeyed across the landscape, the multitude of lines in the ground follow the concourses, flowing and converging with each other using a language of pattern work inspired by the UAE’s traditional Sadu weaving. The design enables people to explore the Expo’s vastness at their own pace. After Expo, it will become a permanent streetscape for the new District 2020.

The Expo Entry Portals will be the first impression of the site upon arrival for the millions of visitors who will attend the first World Expo and largest event ever to be held in the Arab world.

Expo 2020 Dubai will be open from 20th October 2020 – 10th April 2021.