Haikou Shopping Complex - Immersive Experience, Hainan, China

As the Sound System Designer for Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky, Apeiro Design’s Bradlee Ward worked closely with the producer, Weta Workshop to turn a five-story atrium into a multi-sensory, immersive experience for storytelling based on the ecology of Hainan, the Chinese island on which it resides. The project received numerous awards and has been well received by the public.

Sustainability and naturality became important concepts as Bradlee met with the composer and creators to design a system to believably deliver a story of a magical orb taking two children on a fantastical journey. This originated at a 29M tall LED waterfall flanked by concealed L-Acoustics line-arrays and moved through the space to various elements where they encounter a mother tree deer and faun, hummingbirds, a moon bridge, magical trees, and the source of the land’s mystery, the Tree of Light.

As visitors move through the space, they are followed by interactive lights and sounds, making them an active part of the evolving story.

In addition to sound quality and interactivity, Bradlee notes that movement and localization/spatialization of each sound to its respective element within the space and time was a key to success. His design works in harmony with all other design elements, successfully allowing those entering the space to become an active part of the story being told and connecting them to the ecology of Hainan.