CMb.industries is applying for EXPO2020 in Dubai. Together with Walter Kreisel(kreisel electric), Ben Elmecker(http://www.elmecker.net/) and the Soravia Group(http://www.soravia.at), a piece of home soil was shipped to the United Arab Emirates in the concept – in the truest sense of the word and to show one thing: With Austrian technology, it is possible to create a completely self-sufficient ecology.
A fictitious visit
It has already been reported in the media: a piece of Austrian soil was actually shipped to Dubai for Austria’s contribution to the EXPO. So the visit begins in front of a meter-high wall of earth, roots sticking out, it smells of earth and it is pleasantly damp and cool. Layers of earth and seams of coal can be seen, millennia can be guessed at. A biomechanical honeycomb protruding high above your head and over the edge suggests that there is more behind the wall than just the Sound of Music. The tunnel mouth, the miner’s term for the entrance to a tunnel on the surface, is open and invites you to visit. The miner’s song can be heard from inside the earth. Visitors dig their way through the earth wall of a mountain adit and realize: Austria’s cliché is a facade. If you venture deeper, you will discover the transformation from an agricultural to a high-tech country. A country of new raw materials.
At first, the path leads upwards and winds along an artificial mountain that seems to lead to a mountain pasture. After a few steps, it becomes clear that this is where the transformation begins. The lush meadow mutates into a honeycomb construction of solar panels that rises from the ground at the summit and towers over the viewing platform like a floating roof. A magnificent biomechanical treetop that generates energy, provides shade… and water! Water drips from its trumpet-shaped fruits into a 70m2 mountain lake. The water harvester harvests water from the moisture in the air and transforms it into this lively backdrop that exudes a little Bad Ischl flair. The coffee house located here serves Viennese melange with Linzer Torte and Sacher sausages with a side of beer in the cozy guest garden.
If your taste buds are in the mood for smoothies or green bowls, the ingredients are delivered freshly harvested from a glass silo to the café. Fresh carrots, lettuce and other fruit and vegetables are brought to light on a snail conveyor belt – straight from the heart of the mountain. Visitors reach its source via a ramp. They discover what holds the world together at its core. Ken Adam would feel right at home here. A high-tech underworld is reminiscent of the secret hideouts of the villains in old James Bond films. Satellites provide real-time data from space in 8k quality. They show an analysis of the aerosols (air particles) in every place on earth and thus which harmful particles are swirling through the air, as well as the water or salt content.
We are under the artificial lake, through which the light refracts as its bottom is made of glass. In the retro-futuristic domed building, you could just as easily imagine Ernst Stavro Blofeld as Captain Nemo or Nikola Tesla. The physical proportions we are familiar with on the earth’s surface seem to be suspended here. Rather small, like an electron, you fly through the core elements of a self-sufficient infrastructure that can be used anywhere on the planet. Food, water, energy – all sown, harvested, stored and recycled inside the pavilion. Visitors wander through a transparent, transparent and comprehensible production system.
Robots cultivate a bed that is the source of the vegetable silo. Wastewater treatment, lighting, air conditioning and smart cultivation also make food production possible in the James Bond laboratory. Here, the harvested water and the energy generated by the solar honeycombs flow into efficient storage media. With a retro-futuristic feel, the exhibition shows a mix of multimedia surfaces with interaction options and mechanical, digitally pimped machines, demonstrating how the evolution from a coal-driven energy business to clean lighthouses was achieved.
After a tour past steel tanks, flashing command bridges and bubbling storage tanks, you leave the domed room and see daylight again at the end of the tour. Passing the take-away stand, which provides the necessary sugar supply with Mozartkugeln and Palatschinke-to-go, you leave the pavilion again through the earth wall. During their visit, guests have learned that this piece of Austria’s primeval land has a completely unique ecology: Water is obtained from humidity, energy from the sun and waste heat. The ability to store these resources frees locations from their surroundings. New opportunities are created. Decentralized energy and water supply means opening up new, supposedly inhospitable areas, saving people in forgotten regions and conquering blank spots on the map. The high-rise building in the city … the hotel in the desert … the island in the Pacific … life on Mars … possibilities are opening up here that did not exist before.
The visit can be continued after the EXPO: The pavilion will become part of an innovation center, including a hotel, currently being implemented at its original location.
