The focus of this study is to investigate under high turbulence intensity the performance and wake characteristics of a pair of closely spaced counter-rotating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in wind tunnel-controlled conditions. To achieve this, wind tunnel experiments for an isolated VAWT and dual VAWTs are conducted. A squared-mesh wooden grid is placed upstream of the wind turbines to increase the level of free stream turbulence. The wind tunnel tests confirm the increase in power coefficient of paired VAWTs in turbulent flows compared to smooth flows. Additionally, this study analyses the near-wake downstream of the paired turbines in both smooth and turbulent flows to better understand the flow physics.