Expo 2020 Dubai

Mobility Theme Pavilion: Visioning, Strategic & Narrative Development

UAE National Pavilion: Narrative Triage

Client: Expo 2020 Dubai

UK National Pavilion: Messaging Strategy and Content Development

Client: UK Department for International Trade (DIT)

Mobility Theme Pavilion

Major international cultural projects like Expos take years to plan requiring large scale connected-thinking, as well as sensitivity to context and attention to detail.

Tim Gardom Associates were originally invited to work with Foster and Partners and develop the core narrative for the Mobility Pavilion, one of three anchor Theme Pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai.

We brought together experts from diverse fields in workshops to explore the history and future of ‘mobility’. We regularly travelled to Dubai to meet with the client and stakeholders, run workshops and present work in progress.

Based on this iterative process, extensive research and consultation, we developed a narrative-led vision and high level strategy for the pavilion and its role at the heart of the surrounding Mobility Zone.

UAE National Pavilion

We were brought in to deliver a set of narrative triage sessions, re-establishing the narrative foundation for the pavilion experience and ongoing content, design and production work.

UK National Pavilion

The themes of the UK Pavilion are AI (artificial intelligence) and the UK’s contribution to space research. At the heart of the experience is a “collective message” that transforms words donated by visitors into an AI-generated poem, inspired by Stephen Hawking’s Breakthrough Project.

TGAC are developing the core narrative and all scripted and digital communication for the pavilion, working closely with designers from es devlin studio and Avantgarde, as well as client teams from the UKDIT and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).