Studio Max Italiaander

Dubai CommerCity

Exploring how an office campus could become a destination.

Dubai CommerCity wanted to introduce digital media across the district, but not simply as screens or decoration. The question was what those interventions could actually do for the people using the place.

As Creative Director at Pixel Artworks, I led a paid concept exploration, using workshops, spatial concepts and Unreal visualisations to explore how the campus could welcome, connect, entertain and change character throughout the day.

Role

Creative Director

Stage

Concept Discovery

Focus

Spatial Experiences

Location

Dubai, UAE

Dubai CommerCity: concept visualisation of illuminated public spaces
Image Credit: Max Italiaander

From technology to purpose

The starting point was an interest in LED and digital media. The work was about finding reasons for those technologies to exist.

Through workshops with the client, we explored the campus as a connected experience, from responsive arrival moments and wellness spaces to performance, interactive media, exterior data visualisation and a recognisable meeting point at the heart of the district.

Unreal visualisations helped make those possibilities tangible, showing how individual interventions could sit within the architecture and how the character of the place might shift throughout the day.

Dubai CommerCity: visualisation of a large screen in the district
Image Credit: Max Italiaander

A space to gather

A shared canvas for performance, events and moments that could give people a reason to stay after the working day ends.

Changing the atmosphere

Integrated media could shift the mood of the district throughout the day, from everyday workplace to something calmer, more social or more expressive.

A place to meet

A recognisable marker at the heart of the campus: part meeting point, part media sculpture, giving the district its own visual identity.

Making the question clearer

The value of this phase wasn’t only in producing concepts. It was in helping the client understand what they wanted the campus to become.

By making possibilities visible early, we could test what felt meaningful, what belonged in the architecture and where digital media could genuinely change the experience of the place.

That’s exactly the kind of work I find most useful at the beginning of a project: ambitious enough to open up new directions, but grounded enough to become something real.

Project credits

Concept Development & Creative Direction: Max Italiaander at Pixel Artworks

Client workshops and experience planning led by Max, with Unreal visualisation developed with the Pixel Artworks team.

Presented as a paid concept discovery.

Let’s talk

An early idea is enough. Tell us what you’re thinking about.



    Prefer email? max@maxitaliaander.com

    Let’s talk

    max@maxitaliaander.com+44 (0)7546 771030