ALEC Holdings chief executive Barry Lewis said the project had advanced substantially since the contractor secured the award from the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi in May. AtkinsRéalis has been brought in as lead designer, permit applications have been submitted and major procurement packages, including structural steel and technology partners, have been concluded.
Lewis said design, procurement and construction must proceed in parallel because of the scale and complexity of the structure. He said the sequencing was especially demanding, with each stage closely dependent on the next and little room for deviation once the programme is established.
The venue, scheduled for completion by the end of 2029, will be the second Sphere worldwide and the first outside the United States. DCT Abu Dhabi and Sphere Entertainment announced in May that the project would be built on a site between Yas Mall and SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, with the construction phase valued at $1.7 billion, equivalent to about Dh6.4 billion.
The contract is the largest single project in ALEC’s Dh32.5 billion backlog. The company’s first-half results identified Sphere Abu Dhabi as a major contributor to its expanding order book, alongside other large construction and engineering projects across the region.
Sphere Abu Dhabi will be about 150 metres in diameter and will comprise separate internal and external structural envelopes. The internal structure will contain the amphitheatre and immersive display, while the outer envelope will support the programmable Exosphere that forms the venue’s visual exterior.
Lewis said the public-facing appearance would resemble the Las Vegas Sphere, but the engineering solution could not simply be copied. Abu Dhabi’s climate, building codes, power requirements, logistics arrangements and supplier network require adaptations beneath the familiar spherical form while preserving the technical specifications needed for Sphere’s entertainment system.
Inside, the immersive display is expected to be assembled from 933 facets incorporating 62,872 individually calibrated LED tiles. Lewis said the components must align to extremely fine tolerances to avoid visible seams or image distortion across the continuous 180-degree visual field.
Installation of the supporting steel and panels will therefore require tightly controlled conditions for temperature and dust. Lewis said even a difference of about four or five degrees could affect tolerances during assembly, illustrating the precision required as construction progresses.
The Abu Dhabi project follows the Las Vegas Sphere, which opened in September 2023 with capacity for about 20,000 people. Its exterior Exosphere covers about 580,000 square feet and is billed by Sphere Entertainment as the world’s largest LED screen, while the interior features a roughly 160,000-square-foot wraparound display and beamforming audio technology designed to direct sound with unusual precision.
Sphere Entertainment and DCT Abu Dhabi first announced plans for an Abu Dhabi venue in October 2024. Under their partnership, DCT Abu Dhabi is funding construction, while Sphere Entertainment is providing proprietary designs, technology, intellectual property and development expertise.
The companies have said the Yas Island venue will accommodate up to 20,000 guests and host immersive Sphere Experiences, concert residencies, sporting spectacles and brand events. The Exosphere is also intended to carry large-scale visual content drawing on Emirati culture and storytelling.
Yas Island already hosts major leisure and entertainment attractions, and the Sphere site’s location beside Yas Mall and SeaWorld places it within Abu Dhabi’s established tourism district.
AtkinsRéalis said in July that its work with ALEC would cover multidisciplinary design and engineering for the project. The firm described the venue as combining immersive technologies, advanced engineering and high-resolution visual systems at a scale requiring close integration between architecture, structure and specialist technology.
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