Siemens – Dubai Expo

// services
Interactive Installation
Experiential Design
Real-Time Visuals
Volumetric lighting display Solarflare built for Siemens at Dubai Expo 2020, integrated with the technology infrastructure running across 137 Expo buildings.
Lighting infrastructure at Expo scale
At Dubai Expo 2020, Siemens integrated their technology across 137 buildings, history's most digitalised, sustainable Expo. We built the volumetric lighting display.Volumetric lighting at Expo scale means designing for physical environments that are massive, architecturally complex, and occupied by hundreds of thousands of people over the course of the event. The display had to read from distance and up close, hold up across a six-month run, and communicate Siemens's role in the Expo's digital infrastructure without requiring explanation. It also had to integrate cleanly with the building systems Siemens was running. The display was not decorative, it was an expression of the technology underneath it.
Engineering for the long run
Expo 2020 ran for six months. That duration changes the engineering calculus significantly. A display built for a three-day event can tolerate approaches that would be unacceptable across a six-month operation in the Dubai climate. We designed the volumetric system for sustained reliability, factoring in the temperature range, the dust environment, and the maintenance access constraints of a live expo site.The integration with Siemens's own building management systems meant the display could respond to real operational data rather than running a fixed programme. That responsiveness was central to the brief. Siemens wanted the display to demonstrate live, dynamic control rather than simply look impressive.
Presence that communicated authority
Siemens's position at Dubai Expo 2020 was that of the technology partner enabling the event itself, not just a brand exhibiting within it. The volumetric display needed to communicate that distinction, something that belonged to the infrastructure of the Expo rather than the exhibition floor.Across a six-month event attended by millions of visitors, consistent and reliable display performance was the baseline measure of success. The display ran without significant incident throughout the Expo, which in an outdoor environment of that scale and duration is itself a meaningful engineering achievement.