In the Lithuanian language, the word "saule" designates a ray of light. But the term means much more than just an electromagnetic shaft of photons barreling across space. It also embodies the idea of a beacon of material progress. One of those beacons may be laser technology and its emerging role in Green energy production that may someday help deliver entire nations from the limitations of toxic fossil fuels. To convey Lithuanian leadership in the field of laser technology (the nation currently produces up to 80 percent of the various types of lasers in use worldwide), the tiny Baltic nation filled its Expo 2017 pavilion with megawatts of "saule" power that underscored its theme of "The Rays of Future Energy." After entering the pavilion past a facade on which long spears of ruby-red light crisscrossed like dueling lightsabers in "Star Wars," guests strolled through a darkened corridor before turning an abrupt corner and encountering the "Endless Room." Inside the 39-foot-tall rectangular chamber, designed with a stark monochromatic palette, a series of "lasers" – in reality, approximately 2.2 miles of LED strips – continuously flared over the room's surfaces with bursts of light that streaked across the structure like illuminated torpedoes that seemed to go on forever. The illusion of the beams' never-ending transit was achieved by a dozen computer programs and the use of mirrored walls that bookended the otherworldly enclosure.

Extolling Lithuania's leadership in lasers and their potential for reducing the nation's carbon footprint in the future, the Endless Room and its mirage of boundless space transformed a finite fixture into a destination that may have been Expo 2017's most Instagrammed icon.