Prize(s) Honorable Mentions
Lighting Design/Product Company Office for Visual Interaction
Lead Designers Enrique Peiniger, Jean Sundin, Ramy Makhaly, Markus Fuerderer, Rachel Barrow
Architecture Company Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture LLP
Client Expo 2020
Photo Credits Hugo Healy, David Lloyd / SWA
Other Credits Landscape Architecture by SWA Group
Completion Date 10/01/2022
Project Location Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Entry DescriptionDubai Expo 2020 was the first event of its kind to unite the region. Its astounding architecture and grounds continue the Expo’s unprecedented legacy to serve as a symbolic and practical enmeshing of cultures and thought. The complex’s centerpiece is Al Wasl Plaza, an organically engineered intersection of contemplation, enlightenment, and hope.
Auspiciously located at a unique intersection of humanity, Dubai is the global community’s natural meeting point. Appropriately nicknamed “Al Wasl,” or “the connection.” Al Wasl Plaza is a grand public realm that served as a central hub to the Expo’s three thematic districts.
Visitors gather in the Plaza’s comfortable microclimate and multipurpose landscape. At sunset, the massive 70m [230 ft] tall, 130m [426 ft] wide trellis transforms, encasing a hybrid digital projection surface, immersing the Plaza into kinetic splendor.
The trellis is faceted with a series of PTFE mesh panel rings fitted with video-controlled 2,518 LED pixels at intersections. Together, these elements create the largest 360-degree immersive projection surface in the world, upon which video+light activations are visible from within and outside the Plaza.
Al Wasl Plaza is a new global landmark and a place of significance where all are celebrated. The advanced, seamless lighting design brings that unifying narrative to life in vivid detail to tell our human story.
