Time Frame: The Shanghai dunes come home

Five years ago, the Shanghai World Expo was coming to an end, and with it the last chance for visitors to check out one of the most-talked-about pavilions, the huge, bronze sand dunes representing the UAE.

Except, it was not the end of the UAE Pavilion, which was designed by Foster + Partners in celebration of the country’s desert heritage.

After the closing of the 2010 Expo, the building was carefully dismantled and shipped to a new home on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island.

This photo shows the structure being rebuilt in 2011 in Abu Dhabi, getting it ready to host an exhibition to mark National Day and the 40th anniversary of the UAE.

For the next two years it was a centrepiece of Abu Dhabi Art, until heavy rains in 2013 revealed that the structure, while imposing, was too prone to leaks for it to house valuable works of art.

While the future of the building, which sits next to the Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibition centre, is not clear, Abu Dhabi will soon add another expo pavilion to its collection when the UAE Pavilion from Milan arrives.

That pavilion will be rehoused, this time, as a visitors centre, at Masdar City.

* James Langton