Realizing the world’s first Museum of AI Arts

Translating artistic ambition into immersive audiovisual solutions

As an early partner to Refik Anadol Studio, Arup served as the AV owner representative for Dataland, helping translate their artistic vision into a coordinated and buildable delivery strategy. In that role, the team directed and aligned the project’s technology systems, provided technical project management, and helped streamline decision-making between technology and architecture across the wider design team.

This role was especially important on a project defined by unusually complex technical demands which required deviation from traditional project delivery methods. Dataland includes uniquely challenging and highly customized embedded AV elements, including an all-LED infinity room, which required deep understanding and sophisticated coordination across the project team to realize Refik’s vision.

To help reduce delivery risk, Arup supported mock-ups and equipment trials with manufacturers, the AV contractor, and the client team to test the viability of the AV installation before implementation. This approach allowed the project team to understand what would be required to realize the experience at full scale, while supporting the seamless and immersive visitor environment Refik Anadol Studio was seeking to create.

Designing core infrastructure for a technically demanding cultural destination

To help transform the space into a 30-foot-high immersive museum environment, Arup provided structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering that could support the project’s unusually demanding technical and environmental requirements. The team developed engineering solutions to significantly augment building systems for projected imagery and environmental control, helping implement the infrastructure needed to realize the client’s vision.

Arup’s MEP work was critical to accommodating the high technical-grade equipment required across the museum, including 84 high-brightness projectors, over 100 synced bespoke art rendering media servers, audio systems with hundreds of channels and a hybrid on-prem/on-cloud art data system. By combining systems engineering with early risk management, Arup helped convert a conventional shell into a high-performance environment for AI-driven, multisensory exhibitions. 

Building a digital backbone for AI-driven exhibitions

Arup helped shape the digital backbone for a museum experience in which every technological device has a network component and the exhibitions themselves utilize generative AI. That made connectivity central to the success of the project, requiring infrastructure capable of supporting a highly technical, digitally driven visitor environment from the outset.

Our approach focused on understanding the full complexity of the systems required to suit the needs of the technical operations. The project consisted of RF predictive mapping and defining systems topologies for multiple high-bandwidth pathways. By treating ITC as an integral part of the museum design rather than a background utility, Arup helped support the technical conditions needed for Dataland’s immersive exhibitions to operate reliably and at the level of sophistication the client envisioned.

Risk informed security for a new museum typology

Designing a permanent museum dedicated to large scale digital art required a security approach that balanced public safety, regulatory compliance, and the integrity of highly sensitive technology. For a client accustomed to temporary installations, Arup guided the transition to a code compliant cultural venue, integrating life safety, access, and operational risk considerations from the outset.

The project introduced unique technical conditions, including the operation of 84 double-stacked projectors within a single immersive environment and a permitted, five sided LED cube. When conventional manufacturer guidance would have limited or compromised the artwork, Arup applied investigative engineering such as conducting thermal analysis and performance testing, to understand real world conditions and inform risk based decisions that protected both equipment and visitors.

Arup also led coordination with authorities having jurisdiction, navigating permitting pathways for first of their kind installations in Los Angeles. By aligning security, life safety, and engineering requirements, the team enabled the museum to open as a permanent public venue, allowing visitors to safely engage with cutting edge digital art while ensuring long term operational resilience.