Dezeen Magazine

Mobility Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 by Foster + Partners

This week we revealed the Dubai Expo pavilions

This week on Dezeen, we featured pavilions at Dubai Expo 2020 designed by Foster + Partners, Grimshaw, Carlo Ratti and JKMM.

The Dubai Expo is divided into three thematic zones – Mobility, Sustainability and Opportunity, which are each anchored with a pavilion.

Foster + Partners designed a stainless steel clad building as the Mobility Pavilion (pictured top), Grimshaw topped the Sustainability Pavilion with a giant "energy tree" and AGi Architects created a plaza to bring people together as the Opportunity Pavilion.

Finish Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 by JKMM Architects
JKMM Architects "brings a fragment of Finnish nature to UAE" with Dubai Expo pavilion

Alongside these main structures, the expo contains a series of national pavilions designed to promote their respective countries.

Helsinki studio JKMM Architects created a chapel-like building as the Finland Pavilion, Italian architect Carlo Ratti topped the Italy Pavilion with a trio of boats and the Swiss Pavilion had a giant mirrored facade.

Architect at work
Architectural professions top list of elite occupations in the UK

A report released this week by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre found that architecture is one of the most privileged industries.

Titled Social Mobility in the Creative Economy, the report showed that 73 per cent of people working within the architecture profession are considered to be privileged.

SKIMS underwear store in Paris, France designed by Willo Perron
Kim Kardashian launches first pop-up SKIMS store in Paris

In interiors news, art director Willo Perron designed a pop-up store for Kim Kardashian's underwear brand SKIMS.

The temporary store in Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann is furnished with glossy, chunky display units and partitions.

Frank Gehry perfume bottle for Louis Vuitton
Frank Gehry tops Louis Vuitton perfume bottle with aluminium flower

Frank Gehry was in the news this week as the Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect designed a perfume bottle topped with an aluminium flower for French fashion brand Louis Vuitton.

It was also announced that the architect's long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is set to open in 2025, 14 years after construction began.

Balenciaga collaborates with Simpsons to launch Spring Summer collection
Balenciaga collaborates with Simpsons to launch Spring Summer collection

In fashion, luxury brand Balenciaga dressed some of The Simpsons characters in clothing from its collections.

The collaboration was as part of a film premiere-style red carpet event at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to launch Balenciaga's Spring Summer collection.

Löyly by Trolle Rudebeck Haar
Trolle Rudebeck Haar floats prefabricated sauna on Lake Geneva

Popular projects this week included a prefabricated sauna floating on Lake Geneva, a geometric villa overlooking the sea in Japan and a waterside bee house at Somerset hotel.

Our lookbook this week focused on plywood interiors.

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.