Reimagine Energy at Expo 2020 Dubai
A first-of-its-kind journey across seven individual structures
Expo 2020 Dubai was a highly anticipated event that brought together businesses, government officials, technologists and creatives to demonstrate their ideas to build a better world and shape the future.
The Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) was the official integrated energy partner for the expo. They provided energy-related event infrastructure and were provided with a space to build a public pavilion open to visitors from around the world.
Tasked with designing and delivering this experience with ENOC, we looked to reframe ENOC’s brand promise to ‘Deliver Sustainable Value’ in markets worldwide by focusing on energy as more than simply a commodity – but as a force for opportunity, mobility, progress and connection in the world around us.
Our design of ENOC’s Pavilion, named ‘Reimagine Energy’, was consciously designed to be a rich storytelling space. Moving away from ‘business as usual’, the pavilion celebrated visitors’ role within an energy story that is universal.
The pavilion offered a first-of-its-kind journey across seven individual structures (2050 sqm in total) where visitors could feel energy though the use of ultrasound, audio-visual narratives, sensory experiences, kinetic installations and interactive projections. Sustainability was a key element of the space throughout the design and the story.
Constructed from 650 tons of steel and engineered to consider potential legacy use, the structures can be moved entirely or de-constructed and re-constructed elsewhere. A design based on standardization and a modular approach facilitating procurement, installation and commissioning efficiencies. Parametric modelling integrated with Building Information Modeling (BIM) was utilized throughout the project to optimize the design and minimize waste.
Through this immersive, visually compelling experience, we communicated to visitors and the media ENOC’s brand promise in a new way, by emphasizing the ways in which energy has always, and will continue, to connect us.
Impact
The ENOC Pavilion was voted into the top 8 most architecturally significant pavilions at Expo 2020 by Architectural Digest. ENOC’s pavilion recorded 215,630 public visitors across the six months including over 2,000 students from 103 schools across the 182 live days of Expo 2020 Dubai.
The ENOC pavilion was cited in 40 pieces of media coverage across publications with 30 interviews secured that helped to bring the ‘Reimagine Energy’ story to a wider audience.