In the world of retailtainment, where commerce meets creativity, a new beacon of innovation has emerged, offering a fresh perspective on traditional mall experiences. Welcome to Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky, an otherworldly oasis in the heart of the Haikou International Duty-Free City Shopping Complex.
This creation, conceived by Wētā Workshop, a creative studio combining artistry and innovation, goes beyond being just a shopping destination. It offers a unique journey where art, nature, and technology combine to create an immersive experience.
Wētā Workshop describes the Aura experience as akin to embarking on a voyage through a dreamscape, something that transcends the mundane. Moreover, it offers visitors an immersive, magical, and playful art installation that celebrates the natural splendours of Hainan. At its core, Aura redefines the conventional mall experience by responding to visitors’ movements. It envelops them in a symphony of music, light, and thematic motifs that dance harmoniously across its sculptural elements.
The project development involved the client, China Duty-Free Group (CDF), and the construction partner, Dafeng. Blooloop speaks to Wētā Workshop’s Andrew Thomas, senior supervising creative director of location-based experiences, and Rik Athorne, head of creative leadership, to learn more about the award-winning Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky.
The fantastical world of Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky
Aura is an artistic and sculptural wonderland within a shopping complex. It is an immersive, magical, and playful art installation. One that celebrates the natural wonders of Hainan and offers a fantastical expression of these wonders. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a rich story world.
The environment is unique in that it responds and reacts to visitors’ movements, right down to proximity and touch. Guest can also trigger music, sounds, and light across all the sculptural elements of the environment. Each component has its own distinctive ‘voice’ and thematic musical motif.
It is a fully connected world in which the concepts of Qi (life force) are embedded deep within the design and vision of the Atrium. Additionally, the music and synchronized lighting are an extension of the soundtrack specially composed for the animated story. This depicts a journey through a reimagined, fantastical Hainan that plays on the 100-foot-high LED screen central within the Atrium space.
The creative vision
The origin of Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky stems from a clear vision: to craft an environment that goes beyond the typical experience and invites visitors into a world of endless imagination. Drawing inspiration from the beauty and ecology of Hainan, Thomas and Athorne explain that the Wētā Workshop team set out to craft a unique attraction that would serve as a beacon of creativity in a sea of commercialism:
“Our client, China Duty-Free (CDF), gave us just one request: to create the most unique environment and an experience that draws people into the heart of Hainan. We had an immense five-story high, 50-metre-wide atrium in a new architecturally designed building totalling 295,000 square metres to play with.”
CDF wanted to create a retail experience that was the best in China, rivalling the top-tier shopping experiences in the world with ‘AAA’ luxury brands in their retail spaces.
“We knew the quality of the design and experience would need to complement these expectations. It was incredible to be approved by CDF to design and deliver this creative architecture to the atrium of the world’s largest Duty-Free Complex. Because the client empowered the team, this set the tone for the thousands of people on this project to work on a shared vision.”
Wētā Workshop’s design philosophy, they add, is to bring the ‘intimate to the epic’:
“We knew we had been given an incredible opportunity. We are building up a comprehensive body of work in this space now, having worked on Expo 2020 Dubai’s Mobility Pavilion in the Middle East and the New Zealand Liberation Museum Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy, France. Also, we opened the Pounamu Pathway on New Zealand’s West Coast earlier this year.”
Telling a story
Talking about the creative process and how the team approached the project from the start, Thomas and Athorne explain that their goal was to allow visitors to lose themselves in a world of connectivity in play:
“We wanted to take them out of their everyday world and for them to be moved emotionally by this experience. Our goal was to completely rewrite the retail experience and bring the unexpected to a public space. We began the journey by establishing four key pillars: Art, Pop Culture, Nature, and the Fantastical.”
Inspired by Hainan’s beauty and ecology, the team also intertwined the immersive story world they created with the place itself:
“We appreciated that Hainan was already a world-famous tourist destination. So, we needed to create a new type of attraction, a unique element to stand out. We wanted to create a place from imagination and landed on the idea of a fantastical Hainan.
“We needed a simple story mechanism. As part of this exploration, we imagined, “What could happen if you dropped a pebble in a pool”? We were taken by the mesmerising ripple effect and the glimpse of an alternative world reflected on the other side. Children dropping a pebble into the pool was our metaphor for the creative moment.”
From there, the team established the story. It follows two children on a journey through a reimagined Hainan that amplifies the natural beauty of its flora and fauna.
Aura and the theme of Qi
Central to the ethos of Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky is the traditional Chinese concept of Qi, or life force.
Speaking about how this foundational principle permeates every aspect of the installation, from its architectural forms to its interactive elements, the pair explain that the team did so by implementing a high level of interactivity and architecting the space to create a visual sense of flow, rhythm, and energy through the design of sculptural, organic architectural forms:
“This gives the space a sense of life force. These architectural forms transform into two dimensions across the floor. There are beautiful inlays of organic swirling patterns, connecting all the sculptural and architectural elements. In addition, at night, the entire atrium floor becomes an interactive playground. Projection mapping creates a magical layer of spectacle and life force. These animated the Qi lines of the floor and brought the design to life.”
On the interactive elements of the experience, they add that enabling people to engage with an environment is crucial in establishing an immediate sense of connection:
“This allows the visitor to fully immerse themselves through their actions and create their own unique experience. It also provides a feeling of ownership and a sense of surprise.
“It was important for us to create a design based on the idea of surprise and discovery, just like a real-world adventure. We wanted to go beyond the standard, “Stand on this spot and touch this thing.” Nothing was signposted; everything was intuitive.”
This aspect heightened the magic of the space. It also strengthened the immersive nature of the encounter, delivering an individual and multi-user experience across a free-roaming environment.
Technology that enhances without taking over
As attractions become increasingly tech-enhanced, it can be easy to let technology take over and become the star of the show. This, in turn, can detract from the story. However:
“We were very careful in how we played with technology to bring the magic of immersion, interaction, and spectacle without ‘overcooking it’, so to speak,” explain Thomas and Athorne. “We considered this across all aspects of the architectural and sculptural elements of the design so that the overall space had a natural, visual, musical, and animated rhythmical nature to it, which operated more intuitively.”
One element, the Tree of Light, features a spiral staircase that encircles the stylized tree form, comprising thousands of light orbs.
“We used 12,500 individually controlled lights running through Unreal Engine and 18 lidar-based trigger points. Careful consideration went into the design of the multi-speaker spatial audio system integrated into the architecture and sculptural elements. We installed sensitive trigger systems that react to touch and proximity. So, there was a natural, playful intensity and dynamic depending on the location and flow of visitors at any one time.”
The immersive world of Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky
Everything was designed to conceal and integrate the technology, as was the case for the self-supporting cast aluminium tree forms, up to 9m tall in the atrium.
“There are media panels built into the Tree Deer, which have a reflective dichroic faceted outer shell. This plays beautifully with reflected light and the visitors’ movements. Integrated within the Deer sculptures are proximity sensors and touch systems built into some areas of the legs, which visitors can trigger the media panels to create a spectrum of colour and animation, which travels up through the sculptural forms to play across the hundreds of small orbs within their antlers.”
Added to these interactive responses, the visitors’ interaction also triggers music and magical sounds.
“We also designed a 47-metre-long stylised fallen tree sculpture called the “Sky Ladder”. This takes visitors from the ground floor to level four. The people travel up through the heart of the tree form on an escalator. The metallic copper-clad sculpture appears heavy and solid from the outside, softly diffusing the world around it through the subtle, reflective copper finish.”
Once inside, visitors discover kaleidoscopic facets of infinite shifting light and colour, synced with a cinematic soundscape. They activate different light, sound, and musical sequences as they ascend through the hollow tree form until they reach the upper floor, where they can enjoy panoramic views of the atrium.
Overcoming challenges
Creating an immersive experience like Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky posed its challenges. From managing design complexities to integrating technology without detracting from the narrative, bringing Aura to fruition took a lot of work. However, through collaborative efforts and innovative solutions, Thomas, Athorne, and their team successfully navigated these challenges to achieve their goal of crafting something remarkable.
“The project came about during the big COVID lockdown of 2020. Our team was separated and working from home. While we were always on Zoom or team meetings with CDF, we were not working in the same studio space. Ironically, this brought us all closer together. It felt like we were one single team rather than having that separation of “our team” and “the client.”
One of the significant design challenges was the atrium’s glass ceiling, which allowed natural light in:
“We needed to allow for both day and night environments and consider specific materials, reflectivity, and the sun’s movement through the glass ceiling. We were able to provide a solution that was able to retain the visual impact and interactivity at any given time. It’s an amazing ecosystem during the day and turns into a truly magical world at night.”
Bringing Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky to life
Reflecting on Aura’s success, Thomas and Athorne credit creative freedom and collaboration. From conceptualisation to client support, each aspect contributed to innovation and imagination.
Athorne says:
“We had the opportunity to work on such a blank canvas project, where we as a creative team could bring our full creative selves and imagination. We had real, pure creative freedom. Wētā Workshop is from a small island at the bottom of the South Pacific. Being able to work on these projects from New Zealand is a privilege. It’s a great perspective for us, and we need to make the most of these opportunities.”
Thomas adds: “The client fully embraced our vision and enabled us to think big and go beyond. Another highlight for me was collaborating with Dafeng on the later stages of the project. The real highlight was being onsite to witness and help bring our vision to life into a new fantastical reality.”
A successful project
The Haikou International Duty-Free City Shopping Complex has now welcomed millions of tourists. This cements its status as a premier destination for offshore duty-free shopping.
“The response to the project has been phenomenal, and the numbers really do speak for themselves. Since its opening, the Haikou International Duty-Free City Shopping Complex has received 4.5 million tourists, including 180,000 during the National Day Golden Week alone.
“It’s fueling offshore duty-free shopping and high-quality development in Hainan Province and Haikou city. In its first year, 38 new brands opened, 5.8 million duty-free items sold, and online exposure surpassed 1.3 billion hits. There have been 21 large-scale events held in the space already.”
In the constantly changing world of retail, Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky exemplifies the impact of creativity and innovation. It transcends the typical shopping experience, showcasing the potential that arises when art, nature, and technology work together seamlessly. As it continues to draw visitors to its unique offerings, Aura reminds us that even ordinary spaces have the potential to inspire awe and fascination.
