Terra, the Sustainability Pavilion, Expo 2020, Dubai

Our vision for the pavilion

Terra is a demonstration of ground-breaking technology and innovative landscaping, providing an extraordinary adventure that explores our individual and collective responsibilities as citizens on a changing planet. 

Visitors to the breathtaking pavilion will be taken on a journey telling the enchanting story of humankind’s relationship with nature and our impact on it. The experience is designed to empower visitors to understand the effects of their actions and become agents of change.

Its grounds feature a variety of sustainable innovations, including inventive irrigation techniques, a greywater recycling system, local plants to reduce water use by 75 per cent, "energy trees" equipped with solar panels that rotate like a sunflower to face the sun and a water tree that will produce water from the surrounding air.

As part of legacy plans, the building will remain at District 2020 - the new city which will evolve from the Expo site - as a centre for children to engage with science, educating and inspiring generations to come.

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The experience

Like all Eden Projects, Terra will take visitors on a journey which will bring them closer to the natural world. They will embark on a journey under a forest, exploring the fascinating "wood-wide web", an intricate collaboration and communication network between plants and fungi.

They will dive into the depths of the world's oceans, experiencing the mysterious sounds and eerie bioluminescent glows of the creatures that live there.

And they will be shown the effects of human activity on the rest of the natural world, from the changing ecology of the Arabian peninsula in Terra's wadi, or dry riverbed, to the "sea of consumption", a dramatisation of the effect human activity has had on the world's oceans. The centrepiece here is a giant angler fish, its mouth choked with plastic pollution and TVs showing advertising on a loop.

Visitors will be asked questions about the choices they make, the "What Would You Save?" exhibit asking what valued possessions would be retrieved from a burning or flooding house and the "Archive of Three Things" showing the choices of people from around the world. The exhibit highlights the importance of family, community and memory over consumer goods, giving rise to the question of why we damage the environment with our consumption.

Dubai Expo 2020

Expo 2020 Dubai is the first Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and is the latest in a 170 year history of World Expos, which began with The Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Expos bring countries together to celebrate national achievement and provide a platform for innovation and global cooperation.

Did you know?

Dubai Expo 2020 aims to be carbon neutral.

Expo 2020 Dubai boasts more than 190 country pavilions alongside special Expo-owned pavilions which act as centrepeices for each district of the Expo - Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity.

Expos have left a lasting mark on their host nations and cities, with the Eiffel Tower in Paris being built for 1889's Exposition Universelle and since becoming a defining landmark of the city. Other iconic Expo buildings include the Space Needle in Seattle, built for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, and the world's first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

The Expo 2020 Dubai site will live long after the exhibition finishes in March 2022, as it transitions in District 2020. This sustainable, human-centric smart city will reuse at least 80 per cent of the ifrastructure built for Expo, including LEED Gold and Platinum-certified buildings. As it transforms into an integrated mixed-use community, it will carry on and fulfill Expo's founding vision to be an ecosystem to connect, create and innovate.

Photo at top of page by Thinc Design