When the 12th World Games came to Chengdu, AET’s 850 m² naked-eye 3D matrix across the metro network turned the city’s stations into a live channel for the event.
The project covers 44 LED-clad columns on 14 metro lines at 19 core stations — structural elements that became media surfaces.
From Obstacle to Focal Point
A load-bearing column in a metro station is usually read as an obstruction. Wrapped in 360-degree LED, it becomes a moving installation instead.
AET built the columns in several formats using a P1.8 flexible module with cabinet: 5.6 × 3.52 m on four faces, 2.56 × 3.84 m on four faces, and 2.56 × 1.92 m on four faces.
A City Information Layer
The columns carry event results, wayfinding and multilingual service content in real time. Chengdu Metro has been running above six million passengers a day through the summer season and the Games, and the 44 columns sit at interchanges, markets, exhibition venues, commercial centres and universities.
Two-screen and multi-screen synchronisation lets flat images step out of the surface and interact with passengers, which is what turns a functional structure into a destination.
AET has supplied the main screen for the World University Games studio and now the display network for the World Games — a continuing role in Chengdu’s international profile.
Transit and City Media Projects
AET delivers column-wrapped, curved and custom LED for metro, airport and public space. Contact the team with your structural drawings.
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