Expo 2030 Roma will take place in Tor Vergata, a vast area in the municipality of Rome that is home to the eponymous university – one of the leading academic hubs in Italy – as well as a densely inhabited residential district. However, the neighborhood has gone through a phase of neglect in recent decades. The master plan aims to reverse that process through sustainable, long-term development. After the 2030 World Expo, all the event pavilions will be used for different functions, giving shape to a new innovation district in the Italian capital. The master plan was developed with several partners, including ARUP for sustainability, infrastructure, and costing, LAND for landscape design, and Systematica for mobility strategy.

The master plan’s vision of the Expo Solar Park ensures that the event will not only reinvigorate the neighborhood, but help decarbonize it. The solar farm in Rome covers an area of 150,000 square meters and boasts a production capacity of 36 megawatt-peak, making it the largest urban, publicly accessible solar farm in the world. It is composed of hundreds of unique “energy trees” that open and close their panels throughout the day, harvesting energy while also offering visitors ample shade. From above, this infrastructure gives the entire Expo site a signature mosaic look. This complex energy grid is complemented by the “Eco-system 0.0” pavilion, the tallest building of the Expo, which provides cooling through evaporation.

“Expo 2030 Roma aims to break new ground for World’s Fairs and other large-scale events,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. “Our master plan experiments with collective city-making processes, new energy-sharing strategies, and inclusive urban transformations that go well beyond the temporal and spatial confines of the event.”

▼用于收集能量，并为游客提供遮荫的“能量树”，The unique “energy tree” that open and close their panels to harvest energy while also offer visitors ample shade

The master plan divides the Expo 2030 Roma site into three main areas – the City, the Boulevard, and the Park, in a west-to-east layout between the artificial world and the natural world that must exist in harmony if we are to be successful at combating climate change. The layout is characterized by a gradual transition from urban to natural as one moves from west to the east. The City in the West functions as the Expo Village, and will become an extension of the University of Tor Vergata’s campus after the event. The Boulevard, the central pedestrian axis, is a pathway through all of the national pavilions. Finally, the Park in the east is covered with lush vegetation and accentuated by thematic buildings, including “Pale Blue Dot,” a pavilion dedicated to disseminating knowledge about the natural world.