Until recently, display technologies have been limited in providing immersive and engaging experiences in the built environment. Aside from the powerful single-source, large-screen projection seen in dedicated theaters, the presentation of digital content in most spaces has been limited to small, flat displays mounted to walls or mobile carts. These devices are merely add-ons: peripheral afterthoughts not considered integral to architecture.
However, the Expo 2020 Dubai—the first world expo hosted by a country in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia region—reveals new advances in display technology that suggest a sea change in its application within buildings and cities. Likely influenced by the burgeoning interest in immersive art experiences such as those created by TeamLab or Random International, the next generation of displays delivers a more expansive visual field and more seamless integration with physical environments. World expositions are appropriate test beds for new technologies and often foreshadow broadly disseminated changes. If the Dubai Expo is any indication, based on my visit earlier this month, the way people encounter digital information in space is undergoing a tangible transformation.
The first and most visible achievement is the capability of seamless, multi-source projection on a massive scale. Al Wasl Plaza, the “beating heart of Expo 2020,” is a dome-covered circular plaza that functions as the circulation nexus of the expo. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the distinctive geometry of the open-air steel lattice structure was based on the design of a 4,000-year-old bronze ring from the United Arab Emirates. At 221 feet in height and 427 feet in diameter, the dome delivers what the architect claims to be “the world’s largest 360-degree immersive projection experience.” No fewer than 252 Christie D4K40-RGB projectors cast images across a 273,188-square-foot surface consisting of projection screen textiles stretched across the lattice structure. The projectors’ entirely laser-based 40,000 ANSI lumen technology provides a low-maintenance solution that would not have been possible with traditional lamp-based projection. The seamless integration of bright and detailed moving imagery from over 250 dedicated sources is a marvel to behold.
The Al Wasl Plaza dome is not the only projection onto non-flat, non-standard surfaces. Throughout the expo, visitors encounter experimental displays using novel materials and settings. For example, the UAE Pavilion exhibition includes digital projection onto loose piles of sand. The Latvia Pavilion features video stories projected onto monolithic walls made of digitally fabricated peat. At the entrance to the Netherlands Pavilion, visitors are handed large, white umbrellas. Expecting to get wet, the visitors are instead showered with digital projections captured on the translucent umbrella fabric. These projections are not random; instead, they target each viewer’s specific location in space. Expo-goers wanting to get wet, however, can increase their chances in the New Zealand and DP World Pavilions, both of which include expansive water feature-based projections. Movement is also an integral part of the visual story displayed in the Vision Pavilion, which contains a shape-shifting surface composed of actuator-powered voxels (volumetric pixels) to impart physicality to projected imagery.
Interactivity brings additional experiential possibilities to spatially attuned displays. Until recently, the most common method of interaction has been wall-mounted touch screens, but foot traffic is an emerging input source. One approach is to provide visual feedback from ceiling-mounted projectors that respond to occupant presence. A more impressive strategy is to use pressure-sensitive digital video floors. The Russia Pavilion, for example, features an expansive interactive floor composed of frameless digital displays of durable glass. The presence and duration of visitors’ steps broadcast different visual changes throughout the glazed surface. Another input source is airflow. The Austria Pavilion includes a large display wall that depicts moving air in a dynamic, detailed contour map. User activity such as waving one’s arms imparts a recognizable wavelike influence within the field. Visualizing airflow is of increasing importance given the findings about aerosol-based virus transmission and the necessity of natural ventilation.
Innovations in display technologies showcased at the expo represent incremental achievements and signal a more significant transformation underway. The broadcasting of virtual information in physical space has thus far seemed superfluous because of its relative lack of technical sophistication and because it has been applied in superficial ways. Today, designers have access to fundamentally more advanced tools and recognize the experiential possibilities of deep integration with built form. The spatial dissemination of digital content can function as a kind of information architecture, and as the built environment becomes increasingly infused with virtual data, the line between the real and the ephemeral will blur.
The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine or of The American Institute of Architects.
