UAE Pavilion EXPO 2020

As the host, the UAE's pavilion is one of the main buildings at the EXPO and one of great significance.
The design is inspired by a falcon with upward soaring wings, which are fitted with photovoltaics. During the day they are closed and the solar cells tilt toward the sky and at night they open up and display illuminated inner surfaces.
The entire pavilion is monochrome white and is given structure through light. The free-form ceiling of the vast interior is made legible by the double-curved lines of light and captures the iconographic character of the interior space.
The adjoining rooms are very complex ranging from underground parking garages, VVIP rooms and underground entrances to a tunnel connecting the pavilion directly with the Royal Pavilion. Not only did the lighting designers illuminate the interior spaces, but also the building's exterior, the gardens and all of the adjacent areas. The details for the installation were extraordinarily intricate and the highest priority was placed on the invisibility of the luminaires.
Santiago Calatrava wanted only light and structure without any lighting fixtures whatsoever.

Related projects

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      Project

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      For the interior, the architects designed a curved ceiling into which linear RGBW profiles have been integrated. It was designed so that the luminaires could be mounted in a concealed manner, and the V-shaped structure appears to shine from inside itself, indirectly illuminating the space.

      Building type
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      Location
      Asia, United Arab Emirates, Dubai
      Project time frame
      2021 — 2022
    • Palace of Berlin – Humboldtforum

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      The lighting design firm Lichtvision was commissioned to develop a concept to illuminate the facades of the Humboldt Forum. The result was an intentional lighting of the facades in terms of intensities of illumination and their distribution.
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      As a result, the illumination of the square and the facade have been integrated into one luminaire.

      Building type
      Mon­u­ment, Cul­ture, Mu­se­um, Ur­ban Space, Lu­mi­naire
      Location
      Europe, Germany, Berlin
      Project time frame
      2018 — 2022
    • EXPO 2020 German Campus

      Project

      The German pavilion is one of the few that very generously lets in natural light into the interior. We defined and fine-tuned the design for the upper lighting in terms of number of fixtures, distribution and the transmittance of the glass in multiple simulations. The passage of light through clear glass and the breakthrough of direct sunbeams are desired and intentionally made possible. We used films to show how the cones of lights will move through the interior space. Only the center stage is shaded from the spots of sunlight.

      No other pavilion at the EXPO 2020 was given such an intense natural lighting design. It was a statement about the sustainable use of natural light.

      Building type
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      Location
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      Project time frame
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    • House of One

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      On the foundations of the old Petri Church in Berlin, a new sacred building is being built that will unite the three monotheistic world religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam under one roof. It will be a house of encounter, for people of different religions to get to know each other and exchange ideas. Three sacred rooms are arranged around a central domed room. Above this, the building opens up to the city with a loggia and offers views over Berlin.

      For the imposing dome room in the centre of the building, we developed a discreet wall luminaire with several lighting components. This allows us to illuminate the entire room as well as the dome in a balanced way with just a few luminaires. A universal luminaire in the same aesthetics, also developed by us, provides uniform illumination of the circulation areas throughout the building. In the sacred rooms, skylights optimised by us with different characteristics create an appropriate room atmosphere with daylight. At night, this is taken over by the precisely planned room lighting consisting of simple pendant and surface-mounted luminaires.

      Building type
      Mon­u­ment, Cul­ture, Lu­mi­naire
      Location
      Europe, Germany, Berlin
      Project time frame
      2019 — 2021
    • Bucerius Artforum

      Project

      Next to Hamburg's City Hall is a special kind of art museum: The Bucerius Kunst Forum does not have its own collection. It hosts temporary exhibits of loaned artworks and thus requires completely flexible lighting. The museum was advised for many years by Harry Mayer on all aspects involving light. He wished that the special spotlights be retained in the new rooms. So we integrated spots into recessed light channels alongside the luminous ceiling panels. We designed the light channels to have full access to the spotlights so that they can be optimally adjusted. A specially designed extruded aluminum sheath integrates the mounting positions for the luminous ceiling panels making it possible to achieve very fine and precise details. A 3-D spatial analysis has found that it is possible to perfectly illuminate every artform and arrangement.

      Building type
      Mu­se­um, Cul­ture
      Location
      Europe, Germany, Hamburg
      Project time frame
      2020