Pushing the bounds of technology, creativity and craft to immerse a global audience in the future of aviation.
Read MoreTerritory Studio designed and delivered the bespoke digital content and software programming for Emirates’ flagship pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020, where we brought all of our combined expertise in movies, gaming and experiential to bear, teleporting audiences into the world of tomorrow. Located on a purpose-built, 438 hectare site, Expo finally closed its doors in March 2022, having welcomed over 24 million visitors in just six months, from 178 countries world-wide. In terms of sheer size and scale, this is one of the biggest projects that Territory has undertaken, encompassing all manner of technologies and approaches, including interactives, haptics, robotics, 360 projection and VR. Over three years, our team worked on every facet of production - from UI, UX, concepting and coding, to brand design, animation and sound. Ultimately, our goal was to inspire and excite a diverse audience with all the drama and theatre more commonly associated with science fiction.
The installations spoke to a wide range of speculative topics – from aircraft design and experimental materials, to fuel innovations and seamless travel. To ensure the validity of our narratives and the viability of our designs, we undertook extensive research, including a series of workshops on the fundamental principles of flight – and then subjected the content to rigorous and repeated fact-checking by our aviation expert, Jonathan Howes.
In partnership with Creative Technology London, we adopted an array of display screens and techniques to deliver 10 multi-sensory, interactive installations, collectively designed to bring Emirates’ vision of sustainability and innovation to life. We were also charged with creating a separate and distinct visual language for the entire experience, to reflect the futuristic aesthetic of the pavilion and its architecture.
On arrival, visitors travelled through an immersive portal, comprising a huge bank of curved LEDs, which set the scene for the experience within. An infinitely looping animation – rendered for both day and night-time states, featured custom built aircraft cruising through a dynamic cloudscape, to emulate a futuristic windowless fuselage.
A Pepper’s Ghost, housing a stunning LG Ultra Stretch screen, provided the perfect canvas for our holographic aircraft, which was augmented with deep-dive graphics and text, to prime visitors on the physics of flight.
A sophisticated and wholly bespoke touch screen configurator, which allowed users to build, customise and fly their own plane. We created a fleet of 20 original concept aircraft, underpinned by extensive research, which were then fully rendered in 3D. Visitors were able to select from a range of different models, fuels and wing types before designing their own liveries and finally taking their unique creations on a test flight.
An immersive journey through the airport of the future, allowing audiences to discover first-hand how smart technology, architecture and design will transform the entire passenger experience, incorporating facial scanning, interactives, cut-scenes and dynamic fly-throughs.
An arresting combination of robotics and immersive digital content, demonstrating leading-edge innovations that will make aircraft lighter, faster and stronger – from biomimetics and self-healing materials, to generative design. This installation featured an array of robot controlled experiments within a futuristic lab setting, augmented with screen content – all of which was initiated by the user, requiring precise choreography, sequencing and testing upfront.
State-of-the-art Ghost OLED touch screens and a huge prop engine formed the centrepiece of this captivating installation that allowed visitors to delve into the fuels of the future through a combination of fully navigable, holographic 360° models, pop-up graphics and content-rich microstories.
A multi-sensory VR experience, which took visitors aboard a virtual flight in the cabin of the future. Transitioning from the real world into the imaginary realm, a haptic interface enabled users to explore a suite of inflight features designed to enhance passenger experience and wellbeing, including – entertainment and communications, biometric analysis, windowless fuselage with alternate vistas and a fully immersive sound shroud.
Territory conceived and delivered a 6 minute film that brought all of the thematic threads of the pavilion together for an emotive and thought provoking finale. This epic showcase took the form of a seamless, first person flythrough a day in the life of Dubai 2071 – from lush vertical farms and autonomous modes of ground travel, through the airport of the future and up into outer space. Created entirely in Unreal Engine, with live data delivered via Notch, the content was projected across a gigantic 360° canvas, which posed a number of technical challenges, including audience orientation and optimal viewing distances.
