Dubai Towers Used For Biggest Temporary Projection Mapped Surface On Planet

March 12, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Photo Credit: Stéphane Aït Ouarab/2024 Saï

Dubai has a well-established track record for going big with its bling, and the UAE city-state now has more records for the largest short-term projection mapping jobs on the planet.

The projection show ran about a month ago on the twin towers of a development called One Za’abeel, which has residential, retail and office  components and is connected by a cantilevered, windowed concourse more than 300 feet up. It ran over a weekend.

For the launch event related to a resorts element of the complex, the operators engaged the local creative technology firm BUREAU BÉATRICE to map more than 330,000 square feet of the two towers, and then run a custom multimedia show that unfolds over seven minutes. The project required 167 35K projectors, set up across a parking lot.

The building also has what is referred to as the largest LED mesh display on a building – more than 308,000 square feet of that.

Here’s a video that shows the creative and how it looks from a distance. I was thinking it was the LED mesh display and not really projection, but this video shows crews suspending a fabric scrim in front of the windows, so that the projected surface would be consistent and the light wouldn’t just ass through glass windows.

Not sure where the mesh is, but maybe it is a permanent feature on the same facade?

Here’s a video of the projected “show” on the buildings. This would have been insanely expensive, but then again the private party had Jennifer Lopez and Mark Ronson, and actor Idris Elba doing a DJ set.