Project Details
Squint Opera was responsible for the creative and digital design of a brand new, state-of-the-art immersive exhibition at Battersea Power Station. The experience celebrates the Grade II* listed building’s historic and cultural influence. Set in Turbine Hall A, the exhibition serves as a prelude to the epic Lift 109 which at the peak of the station’s northwest chimney, offers unparalleled 360° views over London.
Client
Battersea Power Station Development Corporation
Location
London
Sector
Architecture & Built Environment
Collaborators
IMG, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Sysco AV, CODA to CODA, Fraser Randall, Beck Interiors.
The Brief
To highlight the Power Station’s rich history while also setting it up for its next chapter as a dynamic entertainment destination.
Our Response
Battersea Power Station is an iconic piece of British history with its own story to tell. The station powered a fifth of London before shutting down in 1983. Battersea then became Iconic in pop culture and a mainstay on the bank of the Thames.
Squint/Opera worked with Ralph Appelbaum Associates to tell that story through dynamic animations, interactive tables, immersive media and soundscapes.
Film, images, particles and colours all animate across immersive digital screens. Text emerges out of block colour in the same way the elevator emerges out of the chimney. Graphics and icons are drawn in the style of technical drawings and animated with energy flowing along circuit diagrams …
Lift 109 has a little bit of everything to offer and blends into one continuous experience. A digital tool kit links a whole gamut of AR web apps, immersive spaces, interactive tables, LED screens and lighting sculptures, which work cohesively together to tell a compelling story.
Throughout the process, Squint/Opera used a real-time VR model of Turbine Hall A to review our media, testing speeds, scale and designs before getting to the real-world space.
“Lift 109 is an awesome customer experience to get your head around, it’s an immersive exhibition which stretches from ticketing to the gift shop and it requires a lot of collaboration to create that seamless journey.” – Ben Townsend, Project Director Squint/Opera.
Throughout this project Squint/Opera has become intimately involved with the next piece in the Battersea Power Station story. This is an enormous development, home to 5,000 Apple employees and neighbours to the Embassy of the United States. But more than that, this is simply a development which breathes life back into the cathedral of electrons, a British icon, Battersea Power Station.