The UAE has a large presence at Expo 2000, Germany's world exhibition in Hanover. Luiza Karim reports from what the organisers claim is the biggest-ever world exhibition

It was, in fact, the United Arab Emirates that first signed up for the world exhibition Expo 2000 currently being staged in Hanover, Germany.

That was back in December 1995. Now on June 1, 2000 Expo 2000 opened its doors to the rest of the world.

From June 1 till October 31 2000, EXPO2000 promises to become the biggest world exhibition ever: over 170 nations and international organisations will take part. The size of the exposition grounds is 170 hectares; some 40 million visitors are expected.

"Mankind - Nature - Technology" is the theme of the first world exhibition of the new millennium. For the first time in the 150-year history of world exhibitions, Germany is the host. The concept of EXPO2000 is fundamentally different from all the previous 60 world Exhibitions. First of all, the thematic focus is not solely on technology but also on nature and their relationship to man.

Secondly, EXPO2000 is not only about the traditional national presentations. Hanover offers the visitors a huge thematic area on the global challenges of the third millennium. Also, the programme of events of EXPO2000 is exceptionally ambitious and diverse. On top of that, some 500 world projects have been registered that represent the global themes of the Expo on a local level.

The host of EXPO2000, Hanover, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony. It is well-known for its huge fair grounds which will also form an important part of the world exhibition grounds.

The UAE's 3,000 square metre pavilion, erected on an almost 6,000 square metre plot, is one of the biggest and most distinctive sites on the Expo grounds. The desert fort was designed by the French architect Alain Durand-Heriot and forms an noticeable contrast to the adjoining 'Evolving Gardens'.

The UAE pavilion is 84 metres long and 36 metres wide, and is made from recyclable materials.

The visitor enters the fort through a gateway flanked by two 18 metre high towers and is at once immersed in a scene from Gulf life. Arab craftsmen in dishdasha go about their tasks in the souq, young Arab women dance on a stage to folk music performed by UAE nationals.

Information can be obtained at first hand in a 23 metre high 360 degree circular cinema. To reach the information cinema, you first have to cross a path, sheltered by pale canvas tents, which leads across the fine desert sand that has been specially flown in from the Gulf region - as have the 60 palm trees that will provide shade in and around the desert fort.

"We want to present ourselves as a modern state and to dispel prejudices that still exist about the UAE and the Gulf generally," said the former Expo commissioner general Hessa Al Ossaily.

The UAE's motto for the exhibition is 'From the traditional to the modern'. Visitors experience the country's past as a tract of desert, explained Al Ossaily, and are then given a glimpse of the present and the future. As is well documented, the UAE has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last decades. In the 1970s oil represented 95 per cent of the country's wealth; today the figure is only 28 per cent.

The Expo's main theme of 'Humankind-Nature-Technology: a new world arising' is evident throughout the national and themed pavilions. The UAE is showing how it can effect better protection for natural resources, especially water and plants, and how it intends to reduce its economic dependence on oil even further.

The pavilion has gone down well. The City of Hanover is negotiating to keep the desert fort on the Expo site permanently.

Another nation who will leave their architectural legacy behind is Finland with its impressive pavilion. World expositions have traditionally been important milestones for the development of Finnish architecture, and EXPO2000 Hanover is no exception. The mysterious building brings a piece of Finnish nature into the hustle and bustle of the Expo: the nucleus of the pavilion is a living birch forest with over 80 birches, most of them from Finland.

The Finnish pavilion, "Wind Nest", was designed by architects Sarlotta Narjus and Antti-Matti Siikala. It is a four-storey two-frame (50 x 7.5 m each) building. The outer facades of the building are made of a Finnish innovation - heat-treated thermowood - which resists both humidity, temperature variations and mould much better than conventional impregnated wood. The gables are silk-printed glass. The pavilion includes three spacious exhibition halls where visitors move in two floors. The visitors' route goes from one exhibition hall to another along bridges, through the 15 m wide birch forest where the scent of nature welcomes the visitors.

The Finnish pavilion is located in the vicinity of Expo Plaza, which will be the hub of activities. Holland, Great Britain, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark are the nearest neighbours.

Other Arab countries with their own pavilion are Yemen and Jordan while Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Syria and Egypt share the Middle East and Europe Pavilion.

As the official airline of EXPO2000, Lufthansa is bringing many of the visitors to Hanover. During the world exhibition the airline is starting and landing 90 times a day at Hanover airport. Since May 1999, a Boing 747-400 decorated with the EXPO logo is promoting the first world exhibition in Germany all over the world. I flew courtesy of Lufthansa from Dubai to Hanover via Frankfurt.

Together with the BMW Group, Deutsche Bahn and MAN, Lufthansa is a member of the "alliance for mobility" showcasing in the Mobility exhibition. As a supporter of the mobility theme, Deutsche Lufthansa has focused on the networking of air and rail. Traffic integration at Frankfurt airport is presented as an innovative project.

The growth in traffic worldwide makes innovative and intelligent planning of mobility a factor of increasing importance. Lufthansa intends to combine air and rail travel not only in theory, but also in practice. Under the motto "Altitude Zero", a joint project has been developed in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn to shift short haul flights onto rail tracks. The pilot project should roll out in 2001 between Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

At the mobility exhibition in the Thematic Area, the "Panorama", a unique projection area, shows visitors a variety of motifs and forms of mobility. The exhibition not only seeks to inform, but also offers visions of the future and solutions: the aim, the exhibitors point out, is an intelligent networking of modes of transport - road, rail and air, hydrogen-powered cars and the Transrapid high-speed trains, satellites and airports. This is the only way to sustain mobile freedom and free mobility for the future.

Mobility is the prerequisite of human action, however, growing mobility does have its downsides: environmental destruction, accidents and traffic jams.

Lufthansa is a partner of the German Pavilion and supports several world projects such as the "Living Lakes" network for the exchange of information between lake protection groups around the world.

The spectacular growth of Los Angeles in the 20th century became a serious threat for Mono Lake, 350 miles north of the Californian megacity: Its tributary streams were diverted to L.A., leading to a near collapse of the ecosystem. The Mono Lake Committee, founded in 1978 and counting some 20,000 members, has achieved many accomplishments in its fight to protect the lake. Among them are the legal victories which have paved the way for the restoration of the Mono Basin streams.

Many of the over 700 projects will be introduced at the world exposition in the Global House, the Thematic Area and the Pavilions of the participants. The others can be visited in Jena and Bombay, in the Bregenz Forest, the Amazon or on the Internet.

Is environmental protection purely academic? Does it have to be reprimanding? Does it imply abstinence? Answers are provided by the "Walk-through Film" at the exhibition "Environment": You move through shaped landscapes and look at pictures on surfaces several metres in size and are surrounded by water, forests and landscapes.

In the first two parts of the exhibition, you gain an insight into the influence climate and water have on the environment. The further you move through landscapes affected to varying degrees by humans, such as forests, countryside and towns, the faster sights and sounds change.

This is mean to symbolise the rhythm to which the environment changes or renews itself. With this in mind, it becomes clear that environmental problems arise mainly when humans interfere with nature's rhythm and speed past it.

These world projects are less concerned with expensive high-tech solutions and more with cleverly applied environmentally friendly technology or social activities. A lot of the time, motivated people have initiated projects that set examples: initiatives against child labour, small loan banks for women or mine clearing projects in former war zones.

In view of the global challenges, such as population growth, urbanisation and energy supply, the need for action for sustainable development, the key objective of Agenda 21, can be experienced by all visitors. On a journey back through time visitors to EXPO 2000 will experience the first 100 years of the new millennium. Like researchers in an archaeological excavation site they work their way back through the layers of rock from the year 2100 to the present day. At the time level 2100 an intelligent foil allows a view into the underground network of a city. In 2070 they will find objects of everyday life, and close to the year 2030 they will see the day-to-day life of the inhabitants of the four cities Aachen, S?o Paulo, Shanghai and Dakar.

The team of scenographers "Aatelier 21" is responsible for the design of the content specifications elaborated by Max Dixon, London Research Centre.

A gigantic ship constitutes the scenery for the theme "Humankind" - symbol for our embarking into a new millennium. At the core of the exhibition lie the visitors, their ability to develop ideals and visions. The presentation unfolds around the "ship's cargo" in the shape of large cubes representing various topics. The visitor examines the cubes, explores their contents and manipulates interactive installations. In doing so, they are confronted with existential questions such as "Will genome research decode us completely and be able to read our behaviour from our genes? What implications do the changes in population structures have for our family and work lives?" There are no recipes - the exhibition does, however, offer stimulation, indicate directions for solutions and enable the visitors to develop their own attitude towards the issues.

Dreams of a better world and fear of the end of the world, utopias and nightmarish visions have always influenced humankind. Found in myths, works of art, writings and books, they are a part of world culture. From the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel, from utopian plans for cities to the apocalypse: "Planet of Visions" makes it possible for visitors to go for a walk through the world of utopias from antiquity to the present. Models such as Plato's "State" to Orwell's "1984" lay the foundation for this with their historical ideas. The climax of the exhibition is the "Panorama of Utopias". In a huge work of art made of a gigantic background picture, objects and rhythmic light projections, the entire spectrum and all the inconsistencies of humans' visions of the future are illustrated. Day and night the scenery lights up or darkens exactly like when, at times, things get better and, at times, worse. The plan of the exhibition. which unites elements from art history and the history of civilisation with science fiction motifs, is the creation of the Belgian comic artist François Schuiten and the team of scenographers "Bleu Lumière."

The theme 'Basic Needs' presents approaches on how to satisfy humankind's basic needs through the official world projects of EXPO 2000 as well as through a number of unofficial initiatives from all over the globe .Air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat. Are these our most important basic needs? Or are they love, our homeland, the quest for the meaning of life? The "Basic Needs" exhibition, one of the Thematic Areas of the World Exposition, makes us witnesses - often humorously and at a distance - to the relativity of our requirements. In this way, we learn how difficult it is to secure subsistence for all of humankind. The scenographer of the exhibition, the Indian Rajeev Sethi, is optimistic, however. He believes in the inexhaustible creativity of the peoples and cultures in our global village.

Food as a basic need or as an aesthetic pleasure, malnutrition and over-eating - the whole spectrum of questions about food will be presented in the Nutrition Pavilion, along with possible answers.

Catalan scenographer Anton? Miralda has created an exhibition which reflects the cultural diversity of the subject. Eating is communication - this is his central message. Why are we put off by many things other people take for granted? Do dogs or grasshoppers really make worse food than beef or pork? The line between delicacy and revulsion is often very fine. How do people in different continents have breakfast? Do they sit at a table or on the ground? Does using a knife and fork really show a higher degree of civilisation? Through an intricate balancing of technology, science and art, the exhibition explores not only how food gets to our tables, but also how it gives aesthetic pleasure and a means of sharing.

Visions of intelligent communication and comprehensive information: IBM, as a promoter in the Theme Park, exclusively supports and sponsors the exhibition "Planet of Visions". In the centre of this emotional and multi-media world of experience stands man, who uses modern technologies as a matter of course. Language recognition and translations systems, the digitalisation of handwriting and its evaluation through "Data Mining" are used in the exhibition, as well as other features of the Information and Communication Society of tomorrow. As a logical consequence, the presentation is also be shown in the virtual space of Internet, where it is just as possible to control the interaction elements of the exhibition as it is on the spot.

At the exhibition "Knowledge, Information, Communication", has supported the production of a 21/2 minute video film that will be seen on the moving projection robots. In the ever-changing film sequences, a variety of situations is presented dealing with network communication in the business world, research, entertainment and private life. In addition, there are typical pictures of networked production and forms of work - from the internet telephone to tele-medicine.

The swarm represents information culture: Only by combining and exchanging many small bits of information is knowledge created. The visitors, too, are part of the exhibit: They influence the robot swarm's movement. The exhibition is immersed in blue light. 72 oblong, mobile objects circle around the room like a swarm. These futuristic devices are between one-and-a-half and three-and-a-half metres long and follow each other. Underneath their translucent plastic skins, projectors cast films and images onto their surfaces.

At times, these group together to form a combined image, at others individual motives rotate around the mobile objects. In this way, short stories about writing and language, culture and communication, about the microcosm and the macrocosm are told.

After a long exhausting day at the Expo what you need is to head for the Futures and Health theme area. The scenographer Toyo Ito implements the preservation of health with a deliberate focus on an atmosphere of well-being as the end product of all health endeavours. He believes that technical developments and cross-frontier flows of people and information influence our well-being. This is accompanied by a world-wide standardisation of life styles - the preservation of our health is a complex challenge.

Relaxing chairs, a calm lake and a gentle acoustic background give the visitors pause for thought. Complicated picture projections demonstrate the multiple nature of health, illustrating the on-going interaction between the inside of the body and social, economic, ecological and technical influences.

While the possibilities of creating a healthy and wealthy future were never greater, never have the conditions for health changed as rapidly as today: the gap between rich and poor is growing, life expectancy is on the increase and the cities are expanding at a constantly growing rate.