ALIA, a conversational AI that runs the facility and drives innovation at AREA 2071.

Visual Language

AREA 2071 existed as a building. Visual signals were borrowed from the architecture of the physical space by BIG, branding by IDEO, combined the heritage of the UAE's unique landscape, symbols and patterns. We looked for balance, but through bold contrasts. Shapes mostly sharp, colors that are expressive, but used sparingly. No middle ground, uncompromising, like the vision for the place. No grays, no subtle corners or shadows.

Multi Surface

ALIA lives on convenient surfaces: your phone to handle conversations, a voice device on the table to organize meetings. Smart walls bring out what's trending — who is in today, what they are building, which session is open to join. "What's going on" does not costs a login. Ask about a session and get walked to the room it is happening.

Conversation as the Interface

More than an APP, Alia is an unified spatial presence. One request, multiple paths. Speak to your phone to book a room or equipment, the decision layer reponds on the best device. We strived to remove an app from your day, not add one.

Prototyping

Deciding when to use voice, text, or standard app features was the core design challenge. Mobile served as both the main interface to the facility and the fallback when conversations broke down, so we stress-tested each flow against every content type and size we could throw at it. We also built a full admin suite tying together personal calendars, back-office management, and a chat tool that continuously improves our ML models.

Creative Collisions

One core idea behind ALIA was to simplify networking, removing barriers for collaboration: tracking what problem spaces people were working, or where they tend to be, and when they're free, to offer a small, low-stakes encounter: a serendipitous lunch date.

The goal not being the meeting, but the relationship and the new venture it might lead to.