Germany celebrates start of its Expo 2020 pavilion construction work

Campus Germany celebrated the start of its Expo 2020 construction work and presented sustainability exhibit examples including the Future Energy Lab, Future City Lab and a Biodiversity Lab.

After the ceremony, Commissioner General Dietmar Schmitz and his team presented some of the sustainability exhibits that will be on show and the pavilion’s climate management system. While the ground was being broken in the desert in the UAE, the new website for Germany’s presence at the upcoming world exhibition went live in Cologne.

"Our top priority is making sure that everything is ready on time for the opening of the Expo on 20 October next year. So it’s important to stick to the schedule and start work on construction in good time," said Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse, summing up what the entire pavilion team is busy working on. Koelnmesse is in charge of coordinating all of the preparations on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and will run the pavilion in 2020/2021. The groundbreaking ceremony on the German plot, right next to the host pavilion of the UAE, highlighted the fact that work on the German Pavilion is well on schedule.

Commissioner General Dietmar Schmitz was particularly impressed by the Expo organizers’ progress with construction work on the site. The metro line is already visibly coming to life, the United Arab Emirates Pavilion and the thematic pavilions are taking shape and the domed structure of the Al Wasl Plaza is growing ever taller. "Now it’s our turn to start construction work on CAMPUS GERMANY and become part of this story," said Schmitz. He also thanked the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau and its Executive Director, Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, for the outstanding support they had given. "In fact, our collaboration is itself a superb illustration of the ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ idea," he added, continuing that he firmly believed that "together, we will deliver an unforgettable Expo 2020".

Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director, Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said: "It is a pleasure to welcome Commissioner General Dietmar Schmitz and his team to the Expo 2020 Dubai site for the Germany Pavilion groundbreaking ceremony. We look forward to seeing Germany’s pioneering sustainability efforts come to life as we continue our journey together towards a once-in-a-lifetime celebration at Expo 2020." As the German Pavilion plot, which measures approximately 4,600m², is located in the Expo’s Sustainability District, sustainability will be the main focus at CAMPUS GERMANY.

For Commissioner General Dietmar Schmitz, who has managed the German presence at world exhibitions for several years, the topic of "sustainability and expos" is by no means a new one. At the press briefing following the groundbreaking ceremony, he explained that he was "... often asked whether a temporary building that will be dismantled after six months is really compatible with the Expo’s sub-theme of sustainability." However, since a number of the strategies available take decades to pay off, the planners decided to use lightweight construction methods for CAMPUS GERMANY to minimize the materials used. And the aim is to make sure that the material that is used, steel for example, is reused as far as possible. "In fact, 5,900 metric tons or 77% of the material used in our CAMPUS GERMANY pavilion will be recyclable," he added. A computer-based planning process is already helping to achieve this. It generates new structures from the scrap left over after dismantling, using an algorithm dubbed "Mine the Scrap."

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