20 Years 20 Buildings: Spanish Pavilion Expo2020 Dubai

This 2023 we celebrate 20 years in Mecanismo, and to commemorate it we would like to share with you a series of projects of building structures that have been carried out within the team. This exhibition of works will be held throughout this year under the title 20 years, 20 buildings.

The first building that we present to you is the Spanish Pavilion at Expo2020 that took place in Dubai. The project, designed by the architects Temperatures Extremes, is based on a large open square on which a roof made up of frustoconical structures is arranged. These volumetries are achieved thanks to a triangulated steel structure, which is covered with brightly colored fabrics. On the other hand, it is also worth noting the less visible part, the steel structure of the basement level that supports the cones, and retaining walls built with cofferdams.

Did you know that the structure of the cones does not continue until the foundation, being interrupted on the ground floor to free up the exhibition uses of the lower level?
This is due to their free geometry and position on the first floor. But do not panic, a triangulated mesh, which joins all the bases of the cones, guarantees the stability of the structure.

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the geometric shape of the cones responds to August Föppl’s dome criterion, which states that a triangulated dome is pseudostable if it is formed with an odd number of connections between the rings.

It is curious to see how in the same structure stability is sought within the instabilities marked by the architecture itself.