An area that was once completely desert, transformed to host the pavilions of Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates, is now preparing to house a smart and sustainable district. The idea is that the new urban center, between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, will start operating in October.
The exhibition ran between October 2021 and last March in Dubai – the event, initially scheduled for 2020, had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. About 80% of the structure should be reused for the new city, in an area of more than 2 square kilometers.
According to Sconaid McGeachin, Vice President of Communication at the Expo, the idea of a smart urban center between the financial hub and the capital has been present since the beginning of the event’s project. “The space has already been built as a future city, which we were only using for the Expo for six months.”
According to the schedule, the first companies should be installed in October. District 2020 will receive offices from large companies such as Siemens, Terminus and DP World, but the focus is on startups.
To attract companies, the country launched a program of benefits, which include two years of free workspace, visas, subsidized housing and access to special rates for service providers. In a second moment, starting in January 2023, around 800 residential units will be delivered.
The idea is that District 2020 will continue to grow until it reaches a population of 145,000. Whether the plan will work or not is anyone’s guess. Dubai’s real estate market has suffered a sharp retraction in recent years, and property prices have fallen by up to 40% since their peak in 2014. Even the Palm Jumeirah, the famous artificial island shaped like a palm tree, has been experiencing some upheavals, with owners reporting difficulties selling properties even at prices below the market average, according to the Financial Times.
The location is considered an asset of District 2020. The area is just outside Dubai, on the highway leading to Abu Dhabi. In addition, it is about 20 km from the port of Jebel Ali, one of the most important in the Middle East and among the busiest in the world. In addition, it invested heavily in technology and sustainability. According to the organizers, the venue will have 5G internet, objects connected through IoT (internet of things) and a public transport system operated by autonomous vehicles.
The buildings must have sustainable engineering certificates, and the promise is of a city focused on pedestrians and the use of bicycles – an idea that in practice will need to dribble obstacles in a region where, in summer, the average temperature is above 40°. C, reaching 50°C in peak heat.
The United Arab Emirates has an economy that is heavily dependent on oil and, despite a series of difficulties multiplied by the pandemic and the Ukrainian War, efforts have been made to diversify it. One of the fronts aims to create an image of diplomacy concerned with the climate crisis: Dubai will host, in 2023, COP-28, the United Nations conference on climate change.
WHAT WAS EXPO 2020
Expo 2020 was the world exhibition held in Dubai between October 2021 and March this year — a period that avoided the torrid summer of the United Arab Emirates. In addition to country pavilions, the site received buildings dedicated to three central themes: mobility, sustainability and opportunity.
The place also had attractions such as the Garden in the Sky, a 55-meter tall tower from which it was possible to see the entire Expo area and the desert region that extends beyond the walls of the event. The installation is one of the works that will remain on site, with open visitation when District 2020 opens.
Over six months, the Expo registered 24.1 million visits — which does not represent the total number of people who were at the event, as 49% of visitors were there more than once. The initial target was 25 million, but set before Covid; therefore, the organizers say they are satisfied with the figures.
The fact that Dubai hosted the exhibition was the target of protests by human rights organizations. On the day the Expo began, Human Rights Watch released a statement claiming that the Emirati authorities were using the event to promote a public image of openness when, in fact, the country was committing systemic human rights violations.
The world’s expositions have been around for over 170 years — the first edition was held in London in 1851 and focused on showing the world the innovations of the Industrial Revolution.
Some structures that are now considered iconic were built for former world exhibitions, such as the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Expo, the Atomium, built for the 1958 Brussels edition, and the Space Needle, a 184-meter tower that is now a symbol. of Seattle (USA), which hosted the event in 1962.
