BRIEF: Design the most important stand at the World Future Energy Summit. The stand had to communicate the vision of Masdar and act as a forum for meetings.

The WFES is attended by Heads of State, political leaders and energy experts from around the world. Masdar is a multi-billion dollar initiative to establish the single largest global centre and network, based in Abu Dhabi, for the development and commercialization of alternative energy sources and clean technology solutions. Jordan Design was briefed by Masdar’s agency, KBW, to partner them in the design and production of Masdar’s 1,500sqM stand at the 2009 summit. The stakes were high; the stand was the centre piece of the event that was attended by 18,000 visitors from 84 countries around the globe including 144 official delegations from 19 countries. The task was to create an environment that would communicate Masdar’s vision of the future of alternative energy and be a fitting venue for some of the world’s foremost leaders in energy, politics and business.

SOLUTION: Our objective was to create a space that was engaging, intimate, serious and ordered. The heart of the stand was occupied by a model of Masdar City, with meeting rooms and exhibition spaces radiating outwards. The sheer size of the main stand at 1,000sqM helped considerably to create a sense of separateness from the rest of the exhibition, but the stroke of genius was to have a relatively low black ceiling with mood setting directional spotlights over the majority of the space. This created a sense of intimacy and human scale in what was an enormous space. Additional lighting and theatre was created by a series of large back projection discs. The focal point of the stand was a bank of 16 frameless plasmas laid horizontally and featuring the Masdar City development that is currently under construction. This massive plasma display was supplied by the client, but we created the housing and a 10M diameter overhead drum. The drum created a dramatic context for the plasma display beneath, and the underside was used as a giant horizontal projection screen, effectively the ‘sky’ to the model beneath. The concept, design development, technical drawings and build took place over a period of 3 months.

This very fast turnaround owed a great deal to photo realistic renders of the design and very tight 3D technical drawings that were supplied to the main contractor; the client could see exactly what was being proposed and the contractor had fully developed technical drawings to work from. This was especially important because construction was split between the UK and a local supplier in Dubai. Any successful exhibition stand has to start from a big idea and this has to be expressed in the rationale of the layout, the shapes and the forms. New technology and materials need to be pushed to the limit to create the wow factor, but they must always be relevant to the big idea and within the bounds of the budget. Lastly, there must be a seamless and efficient translation of the idea into reality; this means that design and technical specification and understanding must go hand in hand.