From 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, the Emirate of Dubai will host the 2020 Expo with the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”. Our country will also be represented there with the Belgian pavilion “The Green Arch”, an architectural masterpiece in the form of a green arch with different levels. Among other things, it includes a gourmet restaurant, retail spaces featuring Belgian design and fashion, a business centre and a rooftop terrace with bar. This sponsorship highlights kreon's international position in the high-end architectural lighting sector, with local expertise and presence in the most economically attractive regions of the world. Above all, kreon wants to show visitors that lighting is an integral part of architecture and not just added to it as an afterthought.
Expo 2020 aims to be a global exhibition with a green footprint, built to be as climate-neutral as possible and with a focus on sustainability, clean energy and circularity. This is an important aspect for kreon as a sponsor. “The products are made of ecologically sound materials. Our lighting profiles are over 90% recycled eco-aluminium. When the pavilion is dismantled after the Expo, kreon will recover and repurpose the lighting, or process it into new raw materials,” says Philippe van Doormaal, Global Marketing and Communication Director at kreon. According to kreon, lighting today is an integral part of a digital and connected universe that includes The IoT and LIFI, marking a third impactful transformation in the sector following on the introduction of halogen light and the advent of LED lighting. Lighting thus forms an important part of the Expo theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”.
Lighting designed for architecture
With this sponsorship, Kreon aims above all to invest in long-term relationships and experiences, in valuable and interesting networking locations and contacts, and to emphasize its international position in the high-end world of architectural lighting. At the same time, however, kreon also wants to communicate a specific message to visitors. “In The Green Arch, we mainly want to show that lighting is an integral part of architecture and not just an add on. Our lighting emerges from architecture and is designed for that same architecture without wanting to occupy a prominent position in it,” says van Doormaal.
Three Belgian lighting companies combine to illuminate the restaurant together. The other areas are mostly illuminated by one of the three players. The products used by kreon were chosen for their innovation and are matched to the architecture of the building. The two souvenir shops are illuminated with kreon oran and kreon nuit. Kreon nuit shines in the entrance to the pavilion, while kreon koi-s provides the necessary light in the office spaces. The restaurant is illuminated using 3 profiles of kreon holon on-track. Kreon kagi hangs above the counter and kreon up-glass provides the green border around the roof terrace with the necessary lighting. The passageway to the auditorium and restrooms is lit using kreon kagi.
The Green Arch
BelExpo coordinates and organises Belgium's participation in the World Expo. The BEMOB-2020 group, consisting of contractors BESIX and Vanhout and the firms ASSAR ARCHITECTS and VINCENT CALLEBAUT ARCHITECTURES, was appointed by BelExpo to design and build Belgium’s “The Green Arch” pavilion. The choice of kreon as one of the sponsors was made mostly by these architects. BelExpo aims to showcase a green and smart Belgium and exhibit Belgium's industrial, technological and scientific know-how on an international stage. According to BelExpo, the pavilion soberly and elegantly reflects “belgitude”, while the leitmotif is to catalyse architecture, structure, energy, landscape and scenography as if the entire project had been drawn with one pen stroke.