IKEA Action Speaks Climate Summit
Visual Identity, Exhibition, Architecture
Immersive, bi-level exhibition and summit space design for New York Climate Week 2023
Manifesting climate-positive futures through immersive design
For New York Climate Week 2023, Isometric collaborated with London-based studio Superflux to design a large-scale, multi-sensory space for IKEA’s Action Speaks summit. The exhibition invites audiences to reckon with the urgency of the climate crisis and recognize their collective capacity to make change. The first floor immerses visitors in two urgent visions of the future: one dire and catastrophic, and the other hopeful and harmonious. The second floor showcases inventions and initiatives that are already in action around the globe, paving the way for positive shifts in how we eat, move, make, grow, and power. Projects are grouped by theme on large, island-shaped tables that seem to float. A meandering food bar and an accessible stage complete the exhibit and event space. Bold, dynamic typography and textured, organic forms in neon color animate on fabric screens throughout, energizing the exhibit with key facts and context.
Exhibition fabrication and installation by New Project.
A multi-sensory, AI-powered experience
Upon entry to the experience, visitors are confronted with a photorealistic, AI-generated version of the Manhattan skyline on the day the sky turned orange—smoky, uninhabitable, and enveloped by haze. Ominous sound, smoke, and burning smells amplify the feeling of unease. Visitors then move through a threshold into a utopian vision of New York in 2050, filled with verdant plants and a monumental video projection, amplified by mirrors. The large-scale projection curves on an oval screen around the room. Indigenous plants, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, scent, and sound all make this space a mesmerizing and moving glimpse into a more hopeful future.
A bold, systemic approach to climate action
The second floor showcases how industries and consumers can make an impact through changes in food, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and energy production. The projects presented are often in their infancy—prescient imaginings on how large-scale processes can be made more sustainable, harmonious, and equitable. Island-shaped display tables take over the expansive space, navigating around structural columns or enveloping them. The islands seem to float above the concrete floor, a reminder for visitors of the urgency of rising sea levels, which threaten coastal cities. The exhibition architecture collectively suggests conceptual connections among the various projects, inviting visitors to imagine how these inventions can be scaled for a greater impact.
Centering sustainable materials and design approaches
Hanging fabric screens with projected graphics and imagery complete the diorama for each exhibit theme, activating the full height of the space and creating a sense of place that invites deeper conversations about climate action. All exhibition materials are Class A fire-rated and sustainably sourced, from neon inks and print substrates to stretched fabric mirror and projection screens that create a digital, immersive environment. We also imagined a sustainable afterlife for the exhibition tables—to repurpose them into smaller consumer furniture, such as chairs and coffee tables.
Action Speaks Summit conceived and commissioned by Ingka Group (IKEA) for the New York Climate Week 2023 · In partnership with Project Drawdown and TimeCO2
Exhibition vision, concept, and experience design by Superflux ·
Architectural and graphic design by Isometric Studio · Project Management by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino · Fabrication by New Project · Graphics production by DMR Graphics · Audio visual by ATD · Lighting by 4wall · Sound design by James Bulley Studio · Native Grasses by Interior Foliage Design · Scent by AromAtom · Scent diffusion by Scent Marketing Inc.