Telling our green growth story

Green place: Astana Expo City is a mega structure that will showcase global energy efficiency beginning next Saturday when Expo 2017 opens – and Malaysia will be there. — Adrian SmithGordon Gill Architecture

DESPITE an increasingly connected and online world, face-to-face interactions are still indispensable in this day and age. This is especially true of the gargantuan gatherings at world fairs, which originated in Europe as an outcome of industrialisation.

In 1851, London hosted the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations at The Crystal Palace, touted by some as the first world’s fair. In 1889, Paris hosted an Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.