Wheel of the World | Dubai

The Ferris wheel with led dots sets the stage for creative lighting design, moving images, live scenes and impressions of the Emirate. A total of 40,000 individually controllable and fully video-capable LED dots - 20,000 on each side of the wheel - e

Carl Stahl Architecture turns the “Wheel of the World”

The Global Village Festival Park in Dubai now has a further attraction to offer: A large-scale LED stainless steel mesh from CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE illuminates the “Wheel of the World”, a 60 meter high big wheel that makes the park visible for miles. The 40,000 LED dots of the mesh stretched over the middle section of the wheel provide a stage for dynamic light designs, moving images and effective promotional images.

A visit to the Global Village in Dubai is like taking a trip round the world. More than 70 countries present local crafts, country-specific goods and culinary specialties in around 30 themed pavilions in the region's largest multicultural festival park. Authentic smells, unique background noise and colorful decorations ensure visitors are immersed in the flair of the world's various cultures. Events, shows and concerts offer a multicultural entertainment experience. Additional thrills and fun for the whole family are provided by the “Carnaval”, the ultimate fairground with more than 50 games and fairground rides.

Luminous big wheel

The park, which has traditionally opened from the end of October to the middle of April since 1996, welcomes around six million visitors a year. And with the “Wheel of the World” the Global Village certainly has a special attraction to offer. It is not only the view over the park and the skyline of Dubai from one of the 30 gondolas that is awesome: An impressively large, round area made of an LED stainless steel mesh by CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE in the middle of the big wheel makes the “Wheel of the World” stand out for miles. It provides the stage for creative light designs, moving images, live scenes and impressions of the emirate on the Persian Gulf. A total of 40,000 individually controllable and fully video-capable LED dots – 20,000 on each side of the wheel – make for brilliant pictures with 16.5 million colors. Assembled in a grid of 240 x 208 millimeters on a carrier structure made of the stainless steel mesh X-TEND covering an area of 1,000 square meters, the light dots have integrated processors for maximum flexibility with dynamic image transitions and changes of color. As the LED dots can be specially programmed, the picture in the middle of the “Wheel of the World” always remains straight for the onlooker and does not turn as the big wheel rotates.

X-LED bears up to strong winds

Together with Dutch Wheels, the big wheel builders from the Netherlands, CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE tested the LED stainless steel mesh in a wind tunnel especially for this implementation in Dubai. With its transparent, filigree mesh structure, X-LED has a low dead weight and thus only has a very small surface exposed to the wind. In terms of structural analysis, this means there are only small loads to consider, which is why X-LED is particularly suitable for use in large expanses of LED cable mesh constructions, such as here in the inside of a big wheel with a diameter of 53 meters.

Innovative technology with convincing characteristics

Light installations by CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE combine the lightness of delicate-looking carrier constructions with the diverse possibilities of impressive lighting designs and modern media technology – either as a fixed installation or flexible in use, with a lightweight structure that can be shaped three-dimensionally. Various carrier structures made of stainless steel cables and mesh, I-SYS and X-TEND, as well as individually developed supporting structures enable diverse options for mediatecture.

Individually addressable LED dots, connected with a specially developed five-wire ribbon cable, are attached at the intersections of mesh, between cables or other carrier structures. Images, animations and videos can be transmitted directly to the system via standardized interfaces. Special software allows real-time video rendering and the programming of creative light designs.

Thanks to the efficient LED technology and the exact matching of the energy performance to the relevant requirements, the LED light module systems by CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE are extremely economical in terms of energy consumption. The certification awarded by the German Public Construction Authority for fundamental components of the stainless steel program I-SYS and X-TEND as the basis of the system facilitates planning and approval from the relevant building authority.

Facts

Project:

Wheel of the World, Global Village, Dubai

Construction of the big wheel:

Dutch Wheels, Vlodrop, Netherlands

Planning, manufacturing, assembly of the LED stainless steel mesh:

CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE, Suessen, Germany

Photos:

Carl Stahl ARC GmbH, Suessen, Germany

About CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE

Balustrade in-fill and fall protection, façades covered in foliage, spectacular LED light installations and complex zoo enclosures: With the experience of more than 25 years, CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE creates impressive architectural projects with stainless steel cables and mesh. The services CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE offers worldwide as a complete package for architectural projects range from consulting, planning and structural analysis to manufacture and assembly. Certification in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001 proves that the company demands the very best of a product when it comes to quality. CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE is proud of its climate-neutral operations: It thus thinks and acts sustainably, ensuring the value chain with its own production facilities in Europe as a German family company that has been active since 1880.