Waiting Areas
‘Oasis’ is our proposal for the waiting areas outside the UAE National Pavilion at Expo 2020. It is designed to give visitors something to do while they wait to enter the building.
The idea revolves primarily around engaging the sense of smell through projecting different scents drawn from the national heritage of the UAE. The scent allocated to each zone comes from an ingredient of ‘Bakhour,’ historically imported from different locations. The ingredients recall the trade routes that brought them to the Gulf.
The design is a lightweight system of staggered, alternating arches. The arches are composed of fabric pieces of different lengths, suspended by gridded steel canopies of slanted columns, resembling open arms. The arch form draws on the arcades of the region’s architecture.
In plan, the canopies resemble palm tree branches, which offer shade in a desert oasis.
Bakhour
‘Bakhour’, scented wood chips burned to perfume a room, is part of how guests are welcomed into an Emirati home. It is familiar to locals, and the design uses it to extend that welcome to visitors.
The five allocated zones of Oasis are given different functions and characters. The zones are aligned around the ‘Falaj,’ a water channel carved into the landscape.
Each zone is given its own scent: musk, rose petals, agarwood, sandalwood or frankincense.
Visitors could experience the scented strips by holding and smelling them or walking through the canopies as the wind moves the strips, releasing the scents. The scents are meant to drift and blend between neighboring zones.
One Path
A linear circulation path connects the five zones of ‘Oasis’ to the Falaj. Zone 1 is
a simple steel marquee that draws visitors in without keeping them long. On the landscape, the design covers the water source of the ‘Falaj.’
Zones 2 and 4 are open areas with benches designed to be 3D printed from local sand bound with natural resins.
Between the benches are ‘Mist Pods’ that project scented mist once activated. Visitors could activate the pods at a screen that shows information about UAE heritage, giving a hint of what to expect inside the National Pavilion. The mist is designed to cool visitors in unshaded areas and to carry a scent.
Zones 3 and 5 have a shaded structure with mobile fabric elements that move with the wind. The fabric pieces that compose the sinuous interior space of the shaded zones contain a small pocket at the end of each strip, filled with different ingredients of Bakhour.
The arches are fitted with LED lighting fixtures that are sequentially programmed to generate different lighting patterns.
One programming sequence would have the lights blinking toward the UAE Pavilion, announcing the opening of its movable roof wings.
Scent As Interaction
Making smell the main sense of interaction draws on the role of ‘Bakhour’ in welcoming guests.
Through this proposal, we aim to use senses that buildings rarely address. Designing within an already developed scheme also let the lighting respond to the National Pavilion's moving roof.
Synced with the pavilion, the canopy lights would point visitors to the moment its roof wings open.
Learning While Waiting
The benches, mist pods and screens designed to keep waiting visitors comfortable would also tell them about the heritage shown inside the National Pavilion.
The Brief
The brief asked for livelier waiting areas at the UAE National Pavilion.
Our answer uses smell and touch as well as sight.
Design Drawings Showing 'Expo 2020 Oasis' In Plan, Elevation, And Close-Up Details.
Diagrams Showing The Concept And Design Strategy Of 'Expo 2020 Oasis'.
Diagrams Showing 'Expo 2020 Oasis' Functions, Program, Circulation, And Materials.
A Walk-Through Video Showing The Exterior And Interior Spaces Of 'Expo 2020 Oasis'.