How Vancouver's instantly iconic Science World soccer ball came to be

The transformation of Science World's geodesic dome has already been a bigger success than its creators had hoped. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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Three years ago, when a trio of Vancouverites started kicking around the idea of doing something with the Science World dome for the 2026 World Cup, they had no idea whether their vision was even possible.

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“At first it was kind of a joke,” recalls Rob Hollingsworth. “Like, ‘Yeah, sure we should wrap the dome as a soccer ball! How the hell are we gonna do that?'”

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Sports tournaments thrive on star power, and perhaps none more than the high drama of the World Cup, the quadrennial men’s soccer tournament that opened this month with Vancouver as one of 16 North American host cities.

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This year’s edition has already had plenty of stars: Canada’s Jonathan David and Argentina’s Lionel Messi both scored dazzling hat tricks this week and were tied atop the tournament’s scoring race, and Shakira headlined in the opening ceremony (the Colombian singer’s fourth World Cup appearance of the past 20 years, which is more than the Italian men’s team has had during that time).

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But one of the biggest stars of the show isn’t an athlete or even a person. It’s a 41-year-old, 17-storey geodesic dome.

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The crazy idea of turning Science World’s ball-shaped building into a 40-metre-diameter, 360-degree re-creation of the Adidas Trionda, the 2026 World Cup’s official match ball, has already been a bigger success than its creators hoped, becoming one of the iconic images of Vancouver seen around the world.

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Soccer fans make their way north on Quebec street towards BC Place on June 18, past a transformed Science World. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

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A photo of the Science World ball, which has been called “The Beautiful Dome,” ran above the fold on the front page of The Financial Times, the internationally read British newspaper. The New York Times wrote about the ball this week, and its image has been used to illustrate stories about the World Cup in Chinese, German, Brazilian, and Indian outlets, among many other countries.

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More than 100 news outlets around the world have already run a Reuters photo of the dome, said Vancouver-based branding expert Trina Notman.

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“I really see this image as being the signature image for the World Cup, not just for Vancouver, but for the World Cup among all 16 host cities,” said Notman, principal of West of Ordinary Strategies.

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The dome also serves as the landmark for the start of “The Last Mile,” the approach where supporters march on game days north from Science World to B.C. Place stadium.

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The concept was “the easy bit,” said Hollingsworth, Science World’s senior director of commercial sales and partnerships

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“Just look at the building, and you’re like: ‘Sure, that should be a football. Of course it should.’

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“The hard part was the permissions, the funding and the execution.”

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Science World’s board of directors had questions, including about what effect strong winds might have on those new panels being installed, Hollingsworth said. “Our board was like: ‘This is supercool, but is the dome going to roll down Terminal Avenue? What’s gonna happen when you put all those panels on there?'”