The German pavilion addresses the Expo motto “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” and represents Germany as a “campus,” an open place to exchange knowledge, ideas, and innovations. Rather than placing the buildings horizontally across a site, three suspended cubes are assembled vertically. This positioning of the cantilevered cubes generates a spacious central atrium for gathering and events. At the heart of the visitor experience, this covered vertical space visually connects all functional areas with one another, helps with wayfinding, and assists with traffic flow. The pavilion provides impressive installations and immersive spaces that grab visitors’ attention and sharpen their senses in readiness for the solutions on show in the numerous exhibits.
With the help of digital innovations, the exhibition becomes an intelligent space that responds to visitors individually and provides an unprecedented, customized experience. The technology used to do this was specially developed for the German Pavilion and had its world premiere in Dubai. On their journey through the German Pavilion, visitors come across a number of campus-related features, such as three “curriculum” areas focusing on sustainability. In line with the principles of collaboration and communication that underpin the German Pavilion concept, many of the exhibits here will only function if several people work together to operate them.
The visitor journey ends in the Graduation Hall with a surprising grand finale: a show on swinging seats. Aided by the new technology system, visitors from all over the world come to realize that there is much more that unites them than divides them. They see that if they join forces — by swinging back and forth together, for example — they can achieve much more than they would on their own.
