Expo Awards — Gold, silver and bronze for Kazakhstan Pavilion
The Kazakhstan Pavilion, designed by the insglück agency, won second place at the Bureau Internationale des Expositions (BIE) Expo Awards for the extraordinary thematic realisation in the category “XL Pavilions”. Furthermore, it received the award for the best presentation from the World Expo Awards’ EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE. “This is the presentation of the future. I can imagine that this staging will see many clones in the years to come”, reads one jury verdict about the main show. On top of the „Best Presentation“ award, the Kazakhstan Pavilion took 3rd place in the category “Best Large Pavilion”.
“The awards are an extraordinary recognition for an outstanding project in which our teams joint many creative ideas to one fabulous overall performance.”
Kazakhstan one of the top pavilions
The Expo Dubai 2020 is closing – and saw twenty million visitors. 1,5 million of them visited the Kazakh Pavilion – and were taken on an adventure journey introducing them impressively to the country’s geological and cultural particularities and a vision of life in the future. Kazakh’s presentation belonged to the top pavilions of this year’s world exhibition, attended by 200 countries.
Big Impact Architecture
At Expo 2020 in Dubai, Kazakh presents itself steeped in tradition, modern and future-oriented and knows how to express it perfectly by setting architecture and dramaturgy in perfect balance. The Kazakh Pavilion welcomed its guests sparkling, appealing and with wide curved openings. Hence, the jurors praised the aesthetics and public image in paerticular. The design by insglück was inspired by traditional architecture yet offered a mix of modern solutions. The three-storey pavilion built of freestanding rectangular shells with arches revealed the heart of the building below, the “treasure box”. Inspired by the latticework of Kazakh yurts and their round roof crown, the façade with perforated holes arranged by algorithms allowed the building to breathe and created a fascinating play of light.
Adventure journey through yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Inside the pavilion, an innovative and interactive exhibition allowed the guests to dive into the land of Kazakhstan. On three storeys, the Central Asian country breathed life into its millennial-old rich nomad culture, overwhelming nature and, at the same time, its modern and innovative ideas and dynamic progress. On their journey from past to future, the visitors experienced a DNA show, a learning laboratory, installations with tactile and digital effects, the city of Nur-Sultan as a mixed media presentation and an interactive table that invited them to participate.
Special kind of a finale
The final main show, “Unlimited Space”, marks the staging climax of the exhibition, conveying its vision of life in the future to the international audience through a universal language and an immersive space setting. In line with the Expo motto “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, the insglück team staged a special alliance by anticipating a future where humans and AI interact in harmony. The multimedia-high-tech show with the 270-degree panorama cinema and acrobatic interaction of a KUKA KR 240 formed the heart of the creative staging – a thrilling scenario thanks to the use of impactful show elements, pictural worlds and sound installations. One of the exhibition and media design's key challenges were the highly sensible and secured real-time interaction of industrial robot and human and the seamless connection with the media per exact-to-the-second synchronisation on only one timeline. Therefore, the interface created a robot hand specially built for this purpose, showing the transition to a shared future.
„The visitors number, the overwhelmingly positive feedback – but also the enthusiasm and pride with which client Kasachstan, QazExpoCongress presented the pavilion and the main show to the interested guests – prove the success of the project. On behalf of the entire EXPO family: our client, the NÜSSLI team and, of course, the brilliant insglück crew and all participating companies, we express our thanks”, concludes Detlef Wintzen.
Concept & Design
On behalf of Kasachstan QuazExpoCongres, insglück realized the architectural design as well as the exhibition and media design. The pavilion was built by Nüssli from Switzerland.
