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Our submission focuses on the entrance to the record-breaking three-day technology conference in Saudi Arabia: LEAP. We turned the entrance to the event into the world's largest kaleidoscope. Measuring 40 metres long and six metres high, the kaleidoscope provided guests with a walk-through, immersive experience. It featured a mirrored installation showing ever-shifting images to represent the digitalisation of Saudi Arabia. Titled LEAPscape, the kaleidoscope was made of LED tiles and a mirrorless highly reflective foil manufactured in Amsterdam and Dubai. A breath-taking experience, the immersive installation was on display at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre during the LEAP 2022.
With imagery stretching from beneath the sea to the skies above the Arabian Peninsula, the LED screens layered digital effects that reflected on the mirrors to produce a kaleidoscope effect. Within the kaleidoscope, you were surrounded by scenes of Saudi Arabia’s natural environment morphing with triangular, star-shaped geometries. The designs were developed to represent the nation’s advocacy of technological innovation. When designing the kaleidoscope, we wanted to create an experience that reflected Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation with something attendees had never experienced before. We worked with the award-winning entertainment architect Stufish. With previous clients including the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Beyoncé, the design architect experts set to work.
The initial design idea stemmed from an ambition to construct a space that would capture an X-fold return on investment. Inspired by mirror’s ability to double the visual perception of spaces, the design team eventually crafted an experience that enlarged the environment by nearly 12-fold. Designed with seamless and warp-less mirrors, the installation featured a pair of triangular entry and exit points at either end that had been intricately developed to avoid any interference with the thematic explosion of colour, texture and geometry of the interior design. Stufish partner Maciej Woroniecki told architectural magazine Dezeen that ‘the sensations one feels between different scenes within the kaleidoscope is like stepping from one room into another – some are fully immersive and displace you from a position of stability, while others allow you to re-centre and recognise the confines of the space.’
‘This size was the minimal scale at which an installation like this could be impactful’ said Woroniecki. ‘Anything smaller and the power of the changing content diminishes.’ The kaleidoscope was developed utilising 3DS Max software and virtual-reality headsets to verify the effect internally but also to produce the content and ensure the patterns are effective. The design transitions were fluid and the changes to the environment weren’t aggressive as to make one sick. The designers tried to alter the scale of the environmental imagery often enough to allow visitors to ‘have a breather’ in their experience. The kaleidoscope demonstrated how much could be achieved using very little. Because it is made with mirror foil rather than fabricated elements in glass or steel, the installation is light, weighing just 15 kilograms making it a sustainable achievement.
Nomination Title: LEAPscape, Informa Markets PLC
