Oyster mushrooms have begun sprouting inside a giant vertical farm at the Netherlands pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Its centrepiece of the structure is a green cone upon which more than 9,000 plants and herbs thrive.
The plan is to host a green zone that is more than a building, and display real, sustainable solutions in action.
Guests will be diving into a miniature world where they will be joining the conversation about how we can connect minds to secure water, energy and food
Carel Richter,
Consul General of Netherlands in UAE
Pavilion organisers have created a biotope, or a miniature world in which the climate is controlled naturally, to nurture plants.
“The oyster mushrooms are organically grown within the mushroom nursery at our pavilion and they will be seen inside the 18-metre massive green food cone,” Carel Richter, newly appointed Consul General of the Netherlands in UAE and commissioner general of the country’s pavilion, told The National.
“On the exterior of the cone, there are approximately 9,300 edible plants harvested using Dutch technologies. These plants include tomato, basil, mint and asparagus.”
When Expo opens on October 1, visitors will be able to enter the darkened interior of the green cone to see how the mushrooms are grown.
The fungi are an integral part of the circular system, emitting carbon dioxide that is absorbed by the plants on the cone’s exterior.
A spectacular stained glass solar cell skylight has also been installed.
The floor and wall panels in the lounge are made from mycelium, a biodegradable fungus-based substance, to show how mushrooms can be used to make building material.
An 44-metre curtain separates the business lounge area from the visitors’ section of the pavilion, enabling events to be hosted in privacy.
Its bioplastic textile fibre has been designed using products including corn, sugar cane and cassava, a root vegetable.
A solar-powered rain shower will capture moisture from the air and harvest hundreds of litres of water daily to irrigate the greenery.
Water in the “rainmaker” will be cooled with solar energy to reduce the temperature inside.
The Netherlands aims to depict in real terms how to address global challenges such as water scarcity, food security and the rising demand for energy.
“The visitor journey in our pavilion is directly linked to our theme ‘Uniting water, energy and food’,” Mr Richter said.
“Guests will be diving into a miniature world where they will be joining the conversation about how we can connect minds to secure water, energy and food.”
The pavilion was built largely using local resources. Regionally produced steel was used in the construction to reduce the carbon footprint.
Mr Richter said each segment of the pavilion carried a thought-provoking message about conserving scarce natural resources.
“Our team has been working hard immensely to bring this project into a reality,” he said.
“They are all very excited and looking forward to this mega once-in-a-lifetime event.”
Expo 2020 Dubai opens on October 1 and will run for six months.
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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