From the 15th until the 18th of March, the BelExpo team went on a mission to Dubai. Together with our architects, Vincent Callebaut and Assar Architects, and the Belgian Building Agency, we visited our Belgian Pavilion.
These missions are very important to us, as they offer the possibility of visiting the construction site non virtually, and receiving direct feedback and updates from our contractors, Besix, on site. The past year has made this challenging, as the safety of our team and workers has always been our priority, and the regulations considering travelling from the Belgian and UAE government has made it impossible to be on site as much as we would have liked.
But we manage with modern technology, and teamwork really does make the dream work! So, without any further ado, we hope you enjoy a view behind the scenes of our trip, we know we certainly did.
Our first stop was, of course, an extensive guided visit of our Belgian Pavilion. The perfect opportunity for our architects to get a clear vision of the latest adjustments and additions to the construction. We saw the wooden louvres for the first time in real life and what a treat that was. The full effect will be even more astounding.
Our Commissioner-General, Patrick Vercauteren Drubbel showing us the way to the Belgian Pavilion.
The first louvres being installed.
A view of the arch.
Our second stop was a tour of the Sustainability Pavilion, Terra. We had the honour of being guided through this wonderful experience by John Bull himself, the Director of the Sustainability Pavilion. We explored the different themes and interactive components filled with knowledge.
Concentration all around.
Like walking into the ocean.
One of the many interactive booths.
The next few days were mainly filled with different meetings with our partners and colleagues in Dubai. We even concluded and signed our partnership agreement with Sika.
Sika is a speciality chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. They will deliver the highly specialized mortar required for the concrete planters which will be printed by BESIX 3D (more about them here) and placed in front of our Belgian Pavilion.
A first mould of our planters.
A week well spent, ending on a productive note. From left to right: Mr. Aldwin Dekkers, our Deputy Commissioner-General, Mr. Amr Harb, Target Market Manager at Sika, Mr. Chetan Solanki, Head of finance - Area Middle East for Sika. Mr. Patrick Vercauteren Drubbel, our Commissioner-General, Mr. Sylvain Blin our SPOC at Besix and Mr. Olivier Cremers, Senior Project Manager Design at Besix.
We hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes of our mission. We plan on doing many more. As Expo 2020 Dubai is coming closer, everything is getting more exciting and fascinating by the minute, and we love to share this with you all.
