São Paulo – The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) has launched a public tender to select the architecture and exhibition design project for the Brazilian pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020, the world exhibition that will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between October 2020 and April 2021. Registrations are open until October 27.
The Expo Dubai 2020 theme, “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, is divided in three subthemes: opportunity, mobility and sustainability. Brazil will be part of the space of the sustainability subtheme. The pavilion will highlight diversity, under the theme “Together for diversity”, focusing on nature, people and the tomorrow: “Together for nature, together for people and together for tomorrow.”
Apex states, in the tender’s website, that the projects must show the diversity of Brazilian fauna and flora, the people’s ethnic, creative and cultural diversity, and Brazil presented as an inclusive country of global relevance in sustainability-related issues. The pavilion must reflect the Brazilian socio-diversity, according to Apex.
“We have great diversity for connecting minds,” remarked to ANBA the Expo Dubai 2020 coordinator at Apex-Brasil, Clarice Mosele, on the connection between the overall and Brazilian themes. She says that to be placed in the sustainability area was a choice made by Brazil and a suggestion by Expo Dubai 2020’s organization. The theme for the Brazilian pavilion was chosen over several meetings, in which the different government ministries presented what they wanted to show about the country.
Mosele says that the decision to launch a public tender to choose the project for the Brazilian pavilion was made due to the “excellent experience” in Expo Milan 2015, when the project was chosen this way. The coordinator also mentions the fact that this type of process makes the selection more transparent and encourages public tenders in the country.
The Brazilian pavilion will be in an area of 3,700 square meters. To submit a project, the company must be a registered member of the Architecture and Urban Planning Council and appoint a head engineer. The engineer must live in Brazil and have a staff that includes experts in museography, curatorship, exhibition design or scenography, who will be responsible for the exhibition design project. The tender also requires the project to hire staff from Dubai.
Among the criteria for the selection will be the concept and drawing of the exhibition and its integration to the pavilion’s architecture and theme, the singularity of the experience that it will offer the visitors, the plastic and artistic features, the clarity and consistency in presenting the project, the suitability to the concepts of socioenvironmental sustainability, thermal comfort and energy efficiency solutions, universal accessibility to the pavilion, among others.
Three projects will be selected and receive prizes, but only the first place will be carried out. First place will be awarded BRL 70,000 (USD 18,070). The second place will win BRL 35,000 (USD 9,040), with the third place getting BRL 20,000 (USD 5,160). Apex will sign a contract of BRL 6.1 million (USD 1.58 million) with the winner for its services and will transfer USD 14 million for the construction work, assembly, demolition and disassembly of the pavilion, finishes, furniture and equipment.
Preliminary studies must be submitted from October 31 to November 5, and the results will be shown on November 12. Further details are in the tender’s public call.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
