Expo 2020 – India Pavilion

The façade comprises of 600 individual blocks that reconfigure during the day, adjusting depending on the orientation of the sun while showing 75 different narratives based on the country’s cultural diversity, entrepreneurial, and technological excellence. During the night the façade becomes a vibrant sound and vision show. Inside, the pavilion is an interactive journey through India’s landscapes and technological innovation.

Grankraft’s involvement in this pavilion was to design, fabricate and install the façade. The 600 blocks of the original design were GRC.

Through a collaborative working process with the client, design architect, and main contractor, the material of the blocks was eventually changed to mild steel, treated with a coating that mimic the texture and colours of natural stones found across India. The reduction of weight of the façade panels also allowed a reduction of the sub-structure and optimisation of the kinetic mechanism. The façade blocks are made from 3mm thick mild steel sheets fixed to a frame made of mild steel with an ‘L’ shape angle framework inside. The 3mm thick sheet was folded as per the required shape of a ‘box’ to follow the design and then welded to the ‘L’ shape section angle frame to have the required stability.

Grankraft installed the panels which were produced with the combination of 5 different colours of stone available in India. The rotating shafts were installed first with the panels following using a bespoke connection design to the rotating shaft.