Our client asked us to fabricate an immersive holiday experience inside of a luxury mall environment. The experience was to consist of high-end museum finishes, Instagramable photo opportunities and a synchronized light show.
The challenges we encountered were longevity and ease of installation for a high-volume exhibit. The mirror box element required determining how to keep the seams minimal and yet make it come apart for shipping and storage. Our interactive infinity room needed to be very dark despite the bright mall lights but also meet fire code. Our Instagrammable ornament box had to be built to make it through a multitude of selfies. Lastly, we had to maintain budget while successfully synchronizing all the remote elements to the same custom color palette and show.
Let's talk about the process. This project had many challenges. First of all, the whole scenic design was to be viewed from a full 360 degrees. Secondly, the elements needed to be lightweight but strong. Installing anything from hanging points 135-feet in the air is not easy. How does one begin to make gargantuan amphibians?
For our gift box, we engineered a truss structure that exceeded seismic code requirements but was also maneuverable within the mall elevator. In order to create our infinity room, we fabricated the box with an enclosed metal roof and solid metal wall on the front. This allowed for minimal light pollution. We also produced clusters of mirror finished stainless steel spheres for the ornament box. This created a durable system that allowed visitor interaction but was easy and quick to install and dismantle. Lastly, we sourced and developed a budget-friendly and robust wireless, programmable LED RGB lighting package for each element of the experience.
Well, we actually worked with anatomically-correct 3D models of these critters. As a result, we were able to “dissect” the frog shapes virtually, 3D carve them on our CNC router, then reassemble the parts back into their final shapes. Luckily, custom-engineered tooling allowed us to CNC carve in 12″ thick sections!
We worked with the Fire Marshall to select NFR materials that would support a solid roof and an enclosed front of the box to avoid natural light in our infinity room. The exterior finishes for the gift box were achieved with custom, oversized scratch-resistant, acrylic mirror paneling. This eliminated visible seams and allowed for a luxury finish. For our ornament box, we produced clusters of mirror-finished, stainless steel spheres. This created a durable system that allowed visitor interaction but was easy to install and dismantle. Finally, we sourced a styrene substrate that matched the other finishes used and allowed us to bend and form the bows.
Finally, we were up to the challenge of installing the frogs from hanging points 135-feet in the air. After two nights of careful installation, we were able to create full exposure for these frogs without using specimen pins.
Our thoughtful build methodology allowed us to transport with ease, install on time and meet all design expectations. Bridgewater Studio delivered a holiday décor program with museum quality and high-end finishes. This interactive exhibit allowed for optimal social media exposure, and an immersive dance party inside the infinity box.
