Asif Khan Studio
2020

Asif Khan has designed the Expo Entry Portals, three spectacular gateways to Expo 2020 Dubai that will grant entry to visitors from 20 October.

The structures are the first works to be unveiled from the studio’s design of more than six kilometers of Expo 2020 Public Realm.

The portals are a futuristic exploration of the traditional “mashrabiya”, an elegant design element used across the region to control light and airflow.

Each portal’s remarkable appearance comes from being woven entirely from strands of ultralightweight carbon fiber composite that lend incredible structural strength.

This enables the ethereal portal structures to stand 21 meters high and 30 meters long, without any additional support.

From afar the portals appear to be composed of translucent planes, which up close visitors discover are made from hundreds of fine lines of the structure.

The portals feature two vast doors – each door is 21 meters high and 10.5 meters wide – which will be opened every morning of the 173 days of Expo 2020 Dubai in a symbolic act of welcoming the world.

They lead visitors to tree-filled arrival courtyards, also designed by Khan, in each of the three Expo 2020 districts: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability.

The design enables people to explore the Expo’s vastness at their own pace. After Expo, it will become a permanent streetscape for the new District 2020.

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About the Project:

Client: Expo 2020 Dubai 
Design: Asif Khan 
Structural Engineer: Calin Gologan 
Manufacturer: Ha-Co Carbon GmbH

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About the Designer: Asif Khan Studio

Asif Khan is a research and development led architecture studio that designs buildings, landscapes, exhibitions, and installations, among other things. Khan’s practice explore how material and social innovations can fundamentally alter the way people experience their environment, realized through rigorously detailed and delivered outputs.