Expo 2020 — Al Wasl Plaza

Al Wasl Plaza sat at the geographic and symbolic center of Expo 2020 Dubai: a 130-metre domed trellis whose fabric infill doubled as one of the largest projection surfaces ever built. The brief was to make a shaded outdoor gathering space behave, acoustically, like a controlled show environment for millions of visitors arriving in every language.

My work supported the audio design for that environment — line-source and subwoofer arrays distributed evenly around the trellis perimeter so that a single coherent image reached the plaza floor while staying aligned with imagery wrapping 360 degrees overhead. Coverage studies, array position drawings, and rigging coordination were carried out against a structure that was still being erected, and the surrounding pavilions and below-grade circulation had to be isolated so that show content never became noise for the buildings around it.