Dubai World Trade Center

The Luminescents Pavilion at Dubai's World Trade Center features a modular design that highlights ten unique fragrances through a multi-sensory experience.

illustrarch Editoral Team18 November 20211 Mins read377

MANE, commissioned MEAN* Middle East Architecture Network to design a temporary pop-up at Dubai’s World Trade Center. The pavilion’s primary purpose is to represent the ethos of innovation, sustainability, and collaboration at a global, Dubai-based industry convention. ‘Luminescents’ is a structure hosting ten scents crafted by ten expert Perfumers, taking the visitor on a multi-sensorial journey.

‍Generating Complexity with Modularity

‘Luminescents Pavilion’ is composed of 24 modules, with only six unique types. The unassuming exterior takes the visitor into a ‘dramatic sanctuary’ Each module highlights one of the fragrances below. The design of the modules was to explicitly enclose the structure from the sides while also keeping a sense of ambiguity from the entrance, reducing the visitor’s vision; the cascading fabric creates discrete arched enclosures.

Each module hosts 150 pieces of fabric that vary in width and height; with the aid of computational design and digital fabrication, each piece of fabric was tagged with a unique identifier to assist in the building process.
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The modules are triangular, with longer and wider pieces of fabric at the periphery, and smaller pieces of fabric at the center, generating a gradient in color and size.
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The steel structure hosting the modules is composed of a truss-like triangulated roof supported by fifteen columns. The number of unique modules is kept to a minimum to avoid complications during manufacturing and installation while achieving a complex interior.

‍Light At The End of The Tunnel

‘Luminescents Pavilion’ investigates themes of Hope, Resilience, Rejuvenation, and Light as notions of optimism- to overcome the COVID 19 epidemic. The pavilion’s design refers to these ideas to create a modular structure that suspends fabric from the ceiling, highlighting the scents underneath.⁠

Source: https://archello.com/project/luminescents-pavilion