After eight years and billions in the making, the Dubai Expo 2020 opened this past fall. The six-month-long exhibit, pushed back a year by the pandemic, is the first world’s fair to be held in the Middle East. A record 191 participating countries, each with its own pavilion, are putting their best foot forward by showcasing their history, accomplishments, tourist attractions and ambitions.

While “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” is the official leitmotif, a trio of sub-themes revolving around sustainability, mobility and opportunity anchors the fair. Indeed, the entire expo, including its pavilions, aims to be sustainable, relying primarily on solar panels and other renewable sources for energy and recycling much of its water.

But what about recycling the structures that will remain long after the fair ends in March? After all, the infrastructure built for many world extravaganzas like Olympic games and World Cups, often become impractical white elephants. Not so in this case, according to fair organizers, who say that most of the park will be reutilized, becoming a new mixed-use community located strategically between Dubai’s airports and transit hubs and easily accessible by metro.

While most national pavilions will be broken down, the remaining larger ones will be converted to commercial spaces, residences, hospitals, clinics and schools. Whether any of them will attain the iconic status of the Eiffel Tower, which served as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair or Seattle’s Space Needle, unveiled at the 1962 fair, remains to be seen.