Photos courtesy of Manfred Vogel.
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| Theme: House of My Fathers |
Client: Palais du Gouvernement Alger |
| Fabrication: Pico International Exhibition Services Ltd. |
Design: Totems Communication |
| Size: 20,000 square feet |
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Exterior Design: With echoes of the movie “Algiers,” and its famous line, “Come with me to the Casbah,” the Algerian pavilion recreates the walled-in Casbah, or citadel, of its capital city, Algiers, and the traditional structures that formed around the barricade shielding inhabitants from attacking hordes. From the sand-colored exterior that reflects the brutal desert heat to the two traditional arches through which visitors pass to the super-sized LED screen positioned on top like a modernist minaret, the pavilion becomes a conceptual bridge from Algeria’s storied past to its promising future.
Pavilion Summary: When attendees enter the Algerian pavilion, they are transported back to an alien architecture of narrow corridors and maze-like paths. Once meant to confuse invaders, these interior designs common to North African cities now charm visitors. Oversized LCD screens near the pavilion entrance take guests on a virtual tour through the Casbah, with film shot in handheld fashion. Projection screens mounted behind windows run footage shot inside the Casbah, giving attendees the illusion they are watching everyday life pass by them on the outside. Offering visitors yet a deeper taste of the country’s life, another film exhibit documents the way soccer and dominoes prevail in the Algerian streets. Capping their immersion in the Mediterranean’s largest country, guests walk up onto a terrace — in reality a 75-foot-wide, high-definition, multi-screen setup — that peers down on the Casbah streets visitors viewed earlier.
Additional exhibits display the country’s traditional clothing with its dash of “Arabian Nights” romance, as well as the abiding influence Casbah architecture has had on modern Western design. The entire pavilion uses a desert palette of ash, amber, and sandalwood — a color scheme appropriately reflected by an exhibition of sand from the region. A metaphor for the complexity of Algeria itself, the exhibit displays 16 varieties of granules and grit from the land that some believe, ironically, was the historical source for the Garden of Eden.
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