Thursday, November 21, 2019

Yemen pavilion - Hannover Expo 2000 !


Yemen pavilion at EXPO 2000 Hannover

Architect : Dar-Almohandis Mohamed Kassim Alarikey, Sana
Contact Architects  : Anderhalten Veauthier Architekten, Berlin
Lot size : 1 500 m²
Constructed area : 937 m²

The "Samsara", the traditional Yemeni market, is the main permanent attraction of this pavilion.
Irrigation techniques and crop terraces are presented on the ground floor.


The atrium in the center of the building is a natural skylights. Clay models reproduce cities of Sana'a and Shibam. The famous buildings of several floors were built nearly five centuries. The legend says that Sanaa was the first city founded by Noah after the flood.


The "Dam-Alakhoin", a very rare tree, can be admired on the first floor. Terrace with views leads directly to the magnificent wall surrounding the pavilion. This is the heart of everyday life. Small shops are carved into the wall of mud and include a traditional Yemeni market.

Artisans to perform pieces and expose them for sale: silver jewelry and everyday objects in leather. Performances and dances are held in the courtyard.


Yemenis themselves the goal to advance the status of women in their country.
Debates and symposia will be held on this subject during the entire duration of the EXP02000.

It's said to be in this "land of incense," that once crossed the spice caravans and agriculture is now enhanced by cleverly arranged terraces, that Noah was founded Sanaa, the first city ​​after the flood. A clay model of the city is exposed to the impressive buildings in the pavilion.



The pavilion of the state of Yemen comprises two major sections, that of the city wall with its street-market flair and that of the exhibition building. The city wall was built using the traditional construction method of clay and bricks. It comprises a number of small rooms where products, techniques and handicrafts from Yemen are exhibited to visitors. A terraced open-air exhibit offers a view of agricultural structures typical of the country and also provides space for performances. Visitors entering the pavilion are led across the marketplace to the main building. This three-story Samsara is constructed in the style of public buildings in the city of Sanaa und thus represents a number of important aspects of social and cultural life in Yemen. Pictures, models and objects present examples of Yemenite architecture, building methods and planning.

Event during Yemen national day.


Concepts. The building completely encloses a central space that remains open to the sky.
The exhibition is conceived in such a way that visitors are guided through the entire complex. On the third floor, the route leads out to the city wall, where visitors enjoy a view of the whole exhibition from the outside. A special room on the third floor, the socalled Majraj, is available for VIP events. Such rooms traditionally served as meeting places for Yemenite men.




3D model of Yemen pavilion.








Yemen pavilion.... today in Hannover !




Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Palace of Iran at the Expo 1935 Brussels


The Palace of Iran stood in a charming corner of the Expo, in the center of the Dahlias Garden, near the International Hall, and the pavilions of Palestine and Egypt, completing with them a synthesis of the egendary and modern Orient at the same time. This building was inspired by one of the most famous monuments of antiquity: the palace of Darius at Persepolis. At the top of a broad porch, columns bore a sober peristyle, decorated with winged lions with human faces. M. Frankignoul, the architect in charge of the construction of this palace, studied the plans in our museums; his collaborator was M. Rene Burgraeve.


From the entrance one was seized by an atmosphere of delicate art and luxury; on the walls and on the floor, carpets, replicas of Persian rugs the most aptly famous. Among them, a copy of the painting "Hunting", one of the oriental wonders of the Louvre Museum. Visitors admired the delicacy, the fade, the velvety texture of these fabrics of astonishing finesse; one, pure silk, was the marvel of this section.
The Department of Industry, in recent years, has multiplied in Iran the professional schools where the art of reproducing the old Persian rugs is taught.


In this pavilion were also fine silverware from Shiraz and Isfahan: vases, bowls, knick-knacks, hand-carved with meticulous art; the same qualities distinguished the brass repulsed, very numerous and very beautiful. The Iranian artisans have taken over the traditions of the old oriental engravers. Huge copper platters evoked the great Persian poets, the ancient kings of Iran; then, they were hunting scenes, reproductions of famous paintings, tapestries. Artists had painted flowers, animals, hieratic faces on light candelabra and wooden candlesticks. Others had combined painting and gilding to create splendid covers of books or albums, bindings of the most refined taste. Still others, working bone and ivory with a perfection inherited from long generations of artists, had made belts, bracelets, objects illustrated with miniatures.



The silks and cottons printed, the hangings, the curtains, the embroideries of Isfahan and Recht, the carpets, the style of the pavilion, the clear decoration of the walls, all contributed to give to the Persian section, the aspect of a palace of the Thousand and One Nights. But, on the other hand, one could observe, by studying with the attention that each of them deserved, the compartments occupied by the main industries of Iran today: dried fruits, Astrakhan wool, cotton , skins, etc., that this very old country is moving resolutely on the path of progress.

Such was the opinion of all the visitors, and that of King Leopold III, who in the last days of July 1935 stopped for a long time at the Pavilion of Persia.


The pavilion was inaugurated on the 10th of July, 1935, by M. Gaffary, Minister of Persia at Brussels, and M. Ismailzade, Commissioner-General, who received under the peristyle M. Van Isacker, Minister of Economic Affairs, Count van der Burch, Messrs. Ad. Max and Ch. Fonck. A large number of Iranian and Belgian personalities attended the ceremony.

Mr. Ismailzade insisted on the will of progress of modern Persia. He showed how much the Belgo-Persian relations had multiplied and recalled that the reorganization of customs and posts in Iran was the work of Belgian officials.




Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Energising Sustainability with Malaysian pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE...

Let's discover the logo for Malaysian pavilion...

It looks like to the previous logo of Malaysian pavilion at the last Expo 2017 Astana... Normal ! Malaysia is a country who focus efforts in a same way as working towards a better futur ! ... and Energising Sustainability will stays an important challenge for the whole world.
We're already very impatient to discover their pavilion !!!


Friday, July 26, 2019

Bahrain pavilion is back... at Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE

Do you remember Bahrain pavilion at the previous World Expo in Milano ?

It was a true pleasure to visit it in 2015. We're already very impatient to learn more about the new one.
Just follow their IG page :




Bahrain pavilion at Expo 2015 Milano :




Wednesday, June 19, 2019

World Expo inventions : the best way to cook potatoes

Go to the International Health Exhibition of 1884, in London.

This Expo takes place in a series of a few international exhibition in South Kensington in London, under the patronage of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales..

Four million people visited this Expo under the theme of Health for populace.



We were particularly interested by the show of Groom & Co... they present at the Expo an apparatus made to cook quickly and perfectly potatoes.

They obtained an Honorable Mention at the National Health Society's Exhibition in june 1883.

This invention is designed to meet an almot universal and daily want, viz., the means of cooking with certainly and precision all the various sorts of potatoes that are brought to consumers. Experience carefully conducted have failed to discover any sort of potato which cannit be successfully cooked by this new invention.

The inner lining, filled with potatoes, is placed in the bottom of the vessel, with sufficient water to well cover the potatoes; after boiling fifteen minutes, the lining is raised and fixed at the top, and in about twelve minutes, according to size, they are steamed to perfection.



Tuesday, June 18, 2019

An remnant of EXPO at the Norskfolkemuseum in Oslo !

What was my surprise, when I discover this Expo remnant, during a visit at the incredible Open Air Museum "norskfolkemuseum" in Oslo, Norway:



The gateway to King Oscar II's Collections.

The world's first open air museum was founded here by King Oscar II in 1881. The gateway in the old norse 'dragon' style was originally commissioned by the timber-company Saugbruksforeningen for the 1883 Industrial Exhibition in Oslo and afterwards presented to the King. The architect was Holm Munthe, the foremost designer working in the «dragon»style. King Oscar's Collections were incorporated in the Norsk Folkemuseum in 1907, and the gateway lost its purpose and was eventually taken down in 1951. Its re-erection in 1994 on the original site is funded by the Foundation 'Frit Ord'.



Thursday, June 13, 2019

The Solar Oven by Augustin Mouchot, presented at the Expo 1878 Paris



The Device Mouchot (Le Monde Illustré 1878)

We know that the first attempt to use the sun's rays goes back to Archimedes who, 300 years before our era, used glowing mirrors to burn down the Roman vessels besieging Syracuse, and that this question was of great concern to the alchemists and physicists of the Middle Ages.

The first attempts to obtain an industrial result are due to a Frenchman, Salomon de Caus, whose work was brought to light on the occasion of the beautiful discovery of the properties of the steam; but the state of science did not allow him to benefit from his idea. It was necessary that the learned researches of Ducarla, de Saussure, Mariotte, Melloni, Pouillet, should enlighten the question so that it could be resolved with the simplicity which characterizes it today.

"A funnel and a glass of lamp," said Mr. Abel Pifre lately in a very marked lecture on the direct use of solar heat, "that's the whole thing," and in fact there is nothing else in the small models; for the big ones, the proportions are changed, nothing more.

By means of a simple mechanism and a child can maneuver, the solar generator is oriented in the direction of the sun. Its rays arrive parallel to the surface of the reflector. They are normally reflected on the glass envelope. They pass through it without difficulty, for the glass perfectly lets the light rays pass; but as soon as they have leaned it, meeting the blackened boiler which is in the axis of the reflector, they are transformed into obscure heat and remain prisoners in the glass enclosure, now impenetrable for them. All the artifice is there.

The results obtained in the Paris sun are already surprising. How much more will they be in hot countries, where the raising of water for agriculture, the calefaction of wine, the distillation of alcoholic substances and flowers, and the making of ice cream, will definitely open a new era of wealth and civilization.

It will be an honor for France to have equipped humanity with a new industrial machine and to have acquired a new title of recognition of posterity.
Mollot (Le Monde Illustré)

Augustin-Bernard Mouchot, born April 7, 1825 and died October 4, 1912 is a French engineer and teacher. He is best known for his work on solar energy.
He invents his first solar engine in 1866. Thanks to a subsidy obtained in 1871, he builds a solar oven of 4m ² which he presents to the Academy of Sciences at the end of 1875. Having obtained a new subsidy in 1877, he manufactures a new apparatus of 20m ² to be presented at the World Fair of 1878 in Paris. He will receive a gold medal.

Friday, June 7, 2019

History - Japanese pavilion at the Expo 1900 Paris


The Japan Pavilion is not found in the official pavilions of the Nations Street on the banks of the Seine, but takes in the lower left of gardens, down the slopes of the Trocadero, an important area in which several buildings are a real small Japanese city.


The main building is an interesting reconstruction of the famous pagoda Kondo at Nora, whose architecture dates back to the seventh century AD.

Built in wood, with two floors, the roof tucked in the corners, balconies blood red dragon projecting the floral golden yellow wall at his lotus base, brightened with a bird flying in the intermediate part and crowned at its top by a frieze with cloudy female profiles. This pavilion houses the Imperial Museum with the rarest pieces of Japanese art.


A bazaar and a series of small pavilions between which runs a stream, are staged around. The greenhouse and garden together the most magnificent specimens of the exotic horticulture and reveal gardening methods and artificial cultivation of the highest interest.

Tea and "sake" rice wine each have their pavilion to which hasten the tasters.



LOGO for Japan pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai UAE...

A so true Japanese design... what do you think about ?




A gentle image of Japan, formed by people joining hands
The triangles of various shapes and sizes in the four corners represent people opening both their hands and then joining hands with others to form a circle. This is a new Japanese shape that transcends race, age, and gender by bringing people together and sharing our feelings. The soft circle expresses the flexibility that matches the increasingly diverse Japan of the future, the ideas that emerge from refining and uniting our thoughts to achieve this future, and our expanded visions. It is our hope that this symbol can serve as a testament to the way people came together for one great purpose.

Read more : https://expo2020-dubai.go.jp/en/logo/

Monday, June 3, 2019

First look for Lithuania pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai - UAE

Lithuania has elected the winner from 11 pavilion proposals!

The winner is - OPENARIUM! (by MB "Baukas").


Follow Lithuania pavilion news :




Wednesday, May 15, 2019

History - Expo1937 Paris - Baltic States Pavilion: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are participating in the 1937 Paris Expo in a joint pavilion that symbolizes friendship and reconciliation.

This is an Estonian architect, Mr A. Nürnberg, which must draft Pavilion adopted after a competition of architects took part in the three countries.

Pavilion of Baltic states.

The Pavilion is located on a slope of the Trocadero Gardens side of the Passy wing of the new Palais. A 16 meters wide stone staircase leads theough two terraces, to the main entrance of the Pavilion; it consists of a glass wall jack in a steel frame 14 meters wide and 9m50 tall, with three doors also glass, above which are the three national symbols of the participating countries.

Girls in national costume.
In a large hall dedicated to the assembly and the Union of Three States, decorated with a monumental sculpture of 4m50 high, due to the Latvian sculptor Kaņeps, leaving three passages leading to the particular rooms Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The first room on the right is dedicated to Estonia. Leopards stylized reminder of the arms of the Estonian state. The silver walls and decorated with black and blue detail, indicate the national colors of the country.
At the foot of the walls are arranged various objects of national art: carpets, ceramics, leather works, textiles, paintings, etc. The wall adjacent to the hall is devoted to demonstrate the operation of the coal shale plays an important role in the Estonian economy.

The room dedicated to Latvia shows a beautiful red and white walls flooring: national colors of that State. It contains many specimens of the Latvian folk art.

Lithuanian room is adorned by a large wooden sculpture placed in the community and representing Christ carved from a huge oak. This is a precious relic of Lithuanian national art. This art work was performed according to a model of the Lithuanian artist K. Mikenas by an old peasant specialist religious figures comply with the immemorial traditions.


Pavilion architect : M. Nürnberg
French collaborator : René Rotter