Human health is closely linked to environmental sustainability. The degradation of our planet and the destruction of wild habitats in turn negatively affects us. Climate change threatens our food and water supplies, forces the migration of people towards already overcrowded cities, creates pandemics and threatens our livelihoods with more natural and weather-related disasters.

This event will explore the link between the physical environment and the health and wellbeing of people and how this inﬂuences policy, as well as the planning, design, construction, and operations of human habitats that support health and wellbeing. It will spotlight District 2020 as a people-centric, sustainable community and also provide a platform for International Participants and Partners to share how they have incorporated health and wellness into their pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Healthy Spaces, Healthy Lives

Nature's Healing Hands

Spotlight on Expo and participating countries’ sustainability initiatives, standards and models for sustainable health and wellness practices through their pavilion content, design, programming and operations.

2 FEB - Sustainability @Expo-Natures Healing Hands- Creating Healthy Environments for Living-V2

Nature's Healing Hands - Agenda 

Inside Expo_New

Inside Expo: The Future is Well

The global pandemic has tested our interconnected world. Expo presents an important opportunity for all stakeholders in the health sector to design an inclusive, crisis-proof global health system that is fit for the future. The very latest health and medical technology will also be on display, including systems that are transforming how communities access healthcare and fight disease outbreaks. The programme will highlight how innovation and investment in health and wellness can contribute to a healthier, happier global community. 

health and wellness week

 How can we create a healthy, happy world?

Health & Wellness Week

Ireland 1

stamp Ireland

Newgrange monument in Ireland is a staggering feat of Stone Age engineering, allowing sunlight into its inner chamber only once each year: at sunrise on the winter solstice. The Ireland Pavilion highlights more than 5,000 years of Irish heritage and know-how with a design inspired by this cultural treasure. Curated around the theme of “Thinking Ireland”, the pavilion’s exhibits trace the long lineage of Irish innovation, from ancient stone-working feats to modern-day advancements in science and technology. Don’t miss the exhibition’s innovative light-filtering cone, built in homage to its 5,200-year-old ancestor at Newgrange.

Ireland Flag

Blending neo-classical architecture with ancient themes, the Ireland Pavilion consists of two single-story buildings surrounded by a screen of white columns and topped by a massive ridged funnel structure. The bronze-coloured main building, called the Oculus, is rectangular in form and features inscribed Celtic designs.

ancient heritage

Inspired by

Ireland Pavilion

Sweden Feature image 

stamp Sweden

Image Gallery

Sweden’s vast forests are places of magic, beauty and solitude. The Sweden Pavilion offers visitors an enchanting blend of cultures, combining a Nordic woodland-inspired experience with Middle Eastern architectural flair for a tour of the bio-circular economies and sustainable initiatives of tomorrow. The pavilion’s tree-filled design leads visitors through a variety of “clearings”, where interactive multimedia exhibits present an array of themed topics. Explore next-generation travel systems, immerse yourself in futuristic cities and relax to the authentic sounds of Sweden’s rich woodlands.

Sweden logo

The essence of the forest inspires the Sweden Pavilion, which fuses dense Nordic woodland and Islamic geometric design in a plaza full of cozy tree house structures and hundreds of tree trunks, some as tall as 18 metres. The building’s airy ground floor is built for wandering, housing public areas, exhibitions, and cafés, while the tree house conference rooms are raised aloft, forming a roof over parts of the pavilion.

Sweden intro

forest 

Sweden 

Sweden Pavilion

EXHIBITOR Magazine Announces World Expo Award Winners

EXHIBITOR Magazine's World Expo Awards

5597

stamp Switzerland

Switzerland Gallery

The magnificent, snow-capped Swiss Alps are renowned for their stunning natural majesty. Now, at Expo 2020, you can have your own breathtaking alpine experience – no climbing boots or ice axe required. The Switzerland Pavilion offers a simulated hike through the country’s mountains, traversing a dense sea of fog. After cresting the spectacular summit, you’ll reach an enchanting city of opportunities where you can explore Swiss innovation, take in traditional performances and sample mouth-watering Swiss chocolate.

5602

  Immersive simulated hike amid the Swiss Alps

5603

High-tech interactive exhibits exploring Swiss innovation

5606

Rooftop terrace bar, and delicious Swiss chocolates at the Sprüngli Café

Switzerland Features

Switzerland

The Switzerland Pavilion's bold, funnel-shaped mirror façade reflects the ground in front of the pavilion: a massive red carpet decorated with a white Swiss cross. The polygonal mirror panels converge at a  doorway in the lower left of the building, crafted from scaffolding and textiles inspired by Bedouin tents. 

in red 

Mirror

Switzerland Pavilion

Sustainability @ Expo | Nature's Healing Hands: Creating Healthy Environments for Living

Expo aims to deliver one of the most sustainable World Expos in history, supporting the UAE in its journey towards a green economy. Sustainability is integrated across both our operations and programming, embracing every opportunity to create meaningful impact, and inspiring the global community to play an active role in becoming part of a sustainable future.

The Live in Balance track of Expo 2020 Dubai's Programme for People and Planet features a tapestry of event series and experiences that spotlight our relationship with the natural world, and position Expo as a critical catalyst for restoring balance with our planet.

Restoring Balance with our Planet

Live in Balance cover image

Live in Balance

Live in Balance icon

World Cities Day at Expo 2020 Dubai will focus on reimagining the future of cities to become more inclusive, resilient and dynamic. With a focus on climate solutions, the Day will be brought to life through a series of discussions, dialogues, and showcases of best practices to explore how to collectively adopt a green recovery for more sustainable, smart, resilient and livable urban environments.

A Place for Everyone

World Cities Day

As cities around the world grow and expand, mobility and connectivity have become critical factors for a balanced and prosperous urban life. Not long ago, flying cars and floating pods called “hyperloops” seemed like objects out of a science fiction novel. Now they are right on our doorstep.  

A city’s connectivity relies on the infrastructure that flows between neighbourhoods and urban centres carrying people and goods. With close to 70 percent of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050, transportation will be crucial to quality of life and wellbeing in some of the most densely populated urban centres on Earth.  

Mobility and connectivity have become major factors in economic growth, prosperity, and higher living standards. Let’s explore how innovative mobility solutions can improve urban life and how they could benefit communities equally and safely.

Mobilising a Brighter Urban Future

Busy City

In collaboration with India, this discussion explores how transport and connectivity positively impact quality of life, access to opportunities and urban sustainability.

Session Programme - Cities on the Move

Learnings and insights from the World Majlis conversations on Urban and Rural Development

Insight Report from Urban and Rural Development Week

Learnings and insights from the World Majlis conversations on Urban and Rural Development


Insight Report from Urban & Rural Development Week

Cities on the Move - Documents 

India 1

stamp Opportunity-India

India Image gallery


With its enormous population and diversity of ancient traditions, India is a place of incredible richness and complexity. The India Pavilion offers a new take on the country that goes beyond its famed culture and stunning landscapes to show a rising economic power that is very much open for business. The pavilion focuses on “New India”, an emerging global hub for innovation, inspiration and investment. Its wide variety of exhibits feature not just the food, tea and Bollywood entertainment that so many know and love, but also the country’s modern-day advancements in technology, aerospace, manufacturing and more.


India flag

The India pavilion is a four-level rectangular structure, covered on its upper three floors with rotating tiles in hues of red, orange, and white. 

This kinetic exterior surface also serves as a screen for projected images, such as the face of Mahatma Gandhi. The bottom level features a plate-glass façade. 

India 2 

India

New 

India Pavilion

Access to safe and affordable living conditions is a fundamental right. More than 70 per cent of the world’s population is forecasted to live in cities by 2050 and over one billion are already living in informal communities. As the demand for both cities and communities escalate, Expo will bring together experts, citizens, and governments to re-think the way in which habitats are designed and managed. From innovative transport, sustainable housing and green public spaces to renewable energy and circular economies, living spaces of the future will be imagined as resilient, sustainable and inclusive.  

urban-and-rural-development-1920x1080

 How do we live and grow in harmony with our planet?

Creating a blueprint for future smart cities

Siemens is a global technology powerhouse that unites the digital and 
physical worlds to benefit society through its focus on smart infrastructure, digital industries, and intelligent mobility solutions. As Expo 2020 Dubai’s Premier Partner for Infrastructure Digitalisation, Siemens is reshaping the future of urban living by creating a blueprint for the smart cities of the future. By integrating its technology, the company is helping to create history’s most digitalised, sustainable and secure Expo. Siemens is also an anchor tenant at District 2020, the future city that will live on as a legacy of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Creating a blueprint for smarter cities

Siemens 

UN Habitat

Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)

Urban & Rural Development Week

Eithne Treanor is a professional conference moderator and international communications consultant. Having worked as a business TV reporter, her knowledge covers energy, technology, security, infrastructure, and leadership. She is the managing director and founder of E Treanor Media based in Dubai, UAE. In recent months, she has moved her reporting and moderating skills online to facilitate a number of major global conferences. As a former international broadcast journalist, her TV reporting experience spans major television networks including ABC News, Sky News, BBC World, Bloomberg and CNBC International. 

Eithne Pic 2

Eithne Treanor (Moderator)

Dr OP Agarwal has been CEO of the World Resources Institute India since 2017. He was previously a member of the Indian Administrative Service, the premier civil service in India, from 1979 to 2007 and has held positions with the national and state government of Assam, including Joint Secretary (Urban Transport) in the national Ministry of Urban Development and Secretary for Transport. He was the principal author of the National Urban Transport Policy for the country, adopted in 2006. He also worked in the World Bank for 6 years as its global Urban Transport Adviser.

image

Dr OP Agarwal

In his 18 years of experience, Eng Reyad Al-Kharabsheh has supervised Planning, Construction, and operations for Public Transport Network in Amman. He has also worked as Project Manager to Amman Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project; the ﬁrst mass transit project in Amman. 

Executive Manager, Public Transport Infrastructure Projects Directorate, Jordan 


Eng Reyad Al-Kharabsheh

Josh Giegel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Virgin Hyperloop where he is leading a team of engineers making hyperloop a reality. Josh founded the company in 2014, when hyperloop was an idea drawn on a whiteboard in a garage. A little over two years later, VH built a full-scale prototype capturing the attention of governments worldwide. Today, Josh is leading the development of paradigm shifting electromagnetic, high power, autonomous technology, bridging the engineering work with unparalleled passenger experience, and working at the highest levels of government to develop a regulatory framework for hyperloop technology. In November 2020, Josh made history becoming one of the first passengers in the world to ride on a hyperloop. 

Josh Giegel Photo 2

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Virgin Hyperloop

Josh Giegel 

Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs since June 2017, Durga Shanker Mishra is a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre. He has held various senior assignments in Union and State Governments covering Revenue Administration, Internal Security, Vigilance, Civil Aviation, Tourism, Sports, Agriculture and Research, Taxation, Medical and Health, Mining, and Urban Development. He has served as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for over two years.


Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Durga Shanker Mishra

Vipul Roongta has spent 24 years in the real estate sector, 16 of which have been with HDFC Group, where he currently manages one of the largest residential ﬁnancing platforms in India, focusing on development and technology businesses across the affordable and mid-income housing ecosystem. Vipul is a member of the Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), having served on various boards and industry associations including the National Committee on Housing and Real Estate at Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), South Asia Board of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He is also Co-Chair Real Estate of the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA).

Managing Director & CEO of HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd (HCAL), India 


Vipul Roongta

As Managing Director for Mace Consult in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Mark A Taylor brings more than 25 years of global experience in construction, property and engineering. 
Since joining Mace in 2013, he has grown the company's portfolio of project and programme management and cost consultancy services in MENA by 48% and led the expansion into new markets, such as Saudi Arabia, Maldives and Egypt. Under his leadership, Mace has delivered some of the most iconic projects and programmes in the Middle East, including Ain Dubai and Expo 2020 Dubai.

Managing Director, Consultancy, MENA, Mace Group, UAE

Mark A Taylor

As the Chairperson for the newly formed region of Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania (AMIEO), Guillaume leads Nissan's largest region, covering over 140 markets across four continents with a population of around 3.8 billion people, representing more than 30% of global vehicle sales. With over 25 years serving at Nissan and Mitsubishi across multiple roles covering global and regional operations, Guillaume brings a wealth of experience and a keen focus on business transformation.

Chairperson, Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania (AMIEO), Nissan Motor Corporation

Guillaume Cartier

Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University. He has written 22 books and over 360 papers on sustainable cities and worked to deliver his ideas at all levels of government having been an elected councilor, seconded to advise three Premiers, and a member of the Board of Infrastructure Australia 2008-14. He is the Co-ordinating Lead Author for the UN’s IPCC on Transport. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport. In 2018-19 he was the WA Scientist of the Year. 

Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Australia 


Professor Peter Newman AO

World Majlis | Cities on the Move: Moving Around to Move Up

Explore a series of exciting conversations inspired by the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai. The World Majlis is a vibrant forum where diverse points of views are shared on important topics of our time. Each conversation brings together globally recognised thought-leaders who are invited for their exceptional contributions to the theme and their unique perspective on the topic. In each Majlis, students and members of the public are also welcome to contribute and engage.

World Majlis

Conversations on complex issues that bring together thought leaders, visionaries and changemakers.

World Expos have always been meeting places for people across cultures and geographies; an opportunity to come together and celebrate human ingenuity and forge meaningful human connections. As the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, and with the participation of more than 192 countries, Expo 2020 Dubai looks to take this legacy even further. The Build Bridges track of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Programme for People and Planet features a tapestry of event series and experiences that celebrate our common humanity and the vital connections that can help us prosper together as a worldwide community.

Knowing One Another Better

Build Bridges image

Build Bridges 

Build Bridges Icon

As humanity becomes more of an urban species, more nature-centric urban planning approaches will be needed to help mitigate the impact of growing cities on our planet.  

Growing urban centres have become the ultimate and most visible example of the impact we have on the planet - places made by and for humans alone: Anthropocities.  

Rampant urbanisation is taking its toll on ecosystems, biodiversity and human health. Estimates suggest that cities are responsible for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors. At the same time, cities are facing new threats from climate change, ranging from heat islands to flooding.  

We cannot tackle these challenges without transforming the way we build and manage our cities, which is why urban planners are now increasingly approaching the city as a living ecosystem, in which the natural and the urban can coexist, become complementary and less mutually exclusive. Let’s explore this paradigm shift in the “natural” cities of tomorrow.

Sustainability @ Expo | Nature's Healing Hands: Creating Healthy Environments for Living

Healthy Spaces, Healthy Lives

Participants

Event Information

Health & Wellness Week.

This event is part of the
Live in Balance.

Healthy Spaces, Healthy Lives

Participants

Event Information

Health & Wellness Week.

This event is part of theLive in Balance.

This event is part of the
Live in Balance.