Expo 2020 – Kazakhstan Pavilion

Kazakhstan’s representation to Expo 2020 is a 3-storey white aluminium clad-building inspired by the traditional ‘kalpak’ headgear. The name of the pavilion is ‘Gateway to Tomorrow’ celebrating the country’s cultural heritage and a view to the future. The pavilion envelope being white is inspired by the white national Kazakh clothes and the metal perforation alludes to the lattice traditional nomadic dwelling structure. The outer perforated shell provided the building with shading and ventilation.

Grankraft designed, fabricated, and installed the perforated aluminium façade and roof of the pavilion with an area of 6500m². The cladding was subdivided into 600 square panels with a size of 1.5mx3m and 1.2mx2.4m, supported by a mild steel structure.

At the cutouts of the volume, the cladding is returned with curved panels. The 4mm thick raw aluminium sheets were cut in Grankraft’s laser jet cutter to the required dimensions, and the panels were then bent into the final shape. The corner panels were laser welded, and finally, the panels were ground and polished to be ready to receive the finishing PPC treatment. To achieve the random perforation appearance, there are 12 different patterns of perforation arranged in a predefined way with a joint of 5 mm. The total non-accumulated tolerances are 4mm.