Case study

The Sphere

Media Façade & ArchitecturalKazakhstan

Overview

Wrapping a light-emitting surface around a true sphere is one of the hardest problems in media-façade engineering. Unlike a flat wall, every panel sits on a doubly-curved surface, so rigid modules have to be faceted, or replaced with flexible and mesh LED systems that follow the curvature without visible seams.

The geometry also breaks conventional pixel mapping: content authored for a flat rectangle distorts across a sphere, so imagery is remapped per node and calibrated to read correctly from every angle on the ground. It is why a genuine spherical media surface is treated as a specialist achievement rather than a standard install.

SAVC’s 2026 Company Overview lists the Astana World Expo (2017) among its projects. The copy above describes the engineering of spherical media façades in general; the specific installation scope is logged for confirmation in the internal content register.

Location: Kazakhstan
Market: Media Façade & Architectural

Engineering focus

A media façade is a building that plays content. Wrapping a light-emitting surface around architecture is a different discipline from building a flat screen, one that has to disappear into the structure by day and resolve into imagery by night.

Transparency by day, media by night

Sparse, transparent LED lets daylight and views pass through the building skin, so the façade reads as architecture in daylight and a lit media surface after dark. Transmittance is traded deliberately against night-time brightness and resolution.

Geometry and pixel mapping

Curved, faceted and irregular envelopes break the flat rectangle content is authored for. Nodal and mesh LED systems follow the structure, and imagery is remapped per node so it reads correctly from the ground rather than distorting across the surface.

Structural integration

Fixings absorb the changing surface angle, thermal movement, wind load and maintenance access across a continuously curving envelope, favouring lightweight arrays that preserve the building’s lines and load path.

Content and control

A façade is only as good as what it plays. Scheduling, calibration and remote control turn the envelope into a programmable canvas a facilities team can run and monitor from anywhere.