Pavilion of Kuwait

Just found out about this by mistake and thought it was worth sharing. I’m kinda surprised I hadn’t heard of this before.

Pavilion of Kuwait
With its exhibition hall buried approximately 20 feet under a marble dome, the pavilion was designed as a sculpture with flexible wooden arms that open and close to resemble a palm leaf. Through this design, the people of Kuwait expressed their history and life as follows: When the arms are closed like a seashell, it represents the protection of the Kuwaiti people. When the arms are halfway open it resembles a tent, which is a house for the Bedouin people to protect them from the desert storms. When the arms are fully opened, as shown in the photograph, it acts as a ship’s sail which explains Kuwaiti’s lives as traders and explorers of the sea before their blessing with oil. The building is made of poured concrete steel reinforced wooden arms which also provided shade during Seville’s hot summer days.

Inside the pavilion you could see a six minute video of the Kuwaiti people before the Gulf War, art, scale models of ships used for fishing and trading before the discovery of oil, and scenes of their Bedouin life. [source]

This architecture structure was built as part of the 1992 Universal Exposition in Seville, Spain. You can check out some pictures of it [Here]

Corbis has some pictures as well which you can view [Here]