From architects and designers to engineers and contractors, digital technology is driving a drastic transformation in our approach to creating physical environments. The field is experiencing a widespread shift, with an expectation to integrate cutting-edge technologies into traditional design practices.
My recent interior design project, Sphere in Las Vegas, has thrust me into a new world far removed from where I started 20 years ago when the industry standard focused on creating spaces that were functional, beautiful and brand-aligned through traditional elements like colors, textures and finishes. Today, every design brief that crosses my desk requires multidimensional thinking that goes beyond traditional tools. Questions about digital strategy and the customer journey’s beginning and end are now standard. To meet these challenges, ICRAVE joined Journey, a multidimensional design studio, that blends physical, digital, and virtual elements into cohesive and immersive experiences that transform how people perceive, engage with, and interact with their environments. Our integrated approach aims to deepen the connections between people, brands, and culture by making these multidimensional experiences something to be lived and felt, rather than merely consumed.
Interior design has evolved from focusing solely on aesthetics to prioritizing experience design, a term that has gained significance in our industry. Whether designing a restaurant, hotel, or retail store, clients seek immersive brand experiences. Our work, alongside colleagues at Rockwell Group and Moment Factory, is now defined by “experience design,” integrating digital and immersive design, with a strong visual narrative to exceed patrons’ expectations.
Sphere in Las Vegas has elevated the standard for everyone in the entertainment industry–think stadiums, arenas, concert halls–where emerging tech plays a critical role. When we began work on the interior design of Sphere, the technological opportunities were almost overwhelming. The challenge of creating an interior experience that engages guests and builds anticipation for the main event led us to implement a high-tech architectural lighting system. This system manipulates the venue’s mood and energy for various shows or events, ensuring guests feel an immersive connection at all times.
As fans have greater at-home and virtual entertainment options, other companies are exploring how to merge physical, digital and virtual worlds within a single venue. Unifying these mediums and the divide between artist and fans across all geographies and time zones have innumerable benefits for all parties. Our latest project, TSX Broadway, a multi-use building aims to bring experiential retail, hospitality and entertainment to Times Square in 2024. Central to this development is TSX Entertainment (TSXE), an immersive entertainment platform that connects both physical and virtual worlds. TSXE is poised to revolutionize how artists connect with fans and brands, allow fans, for example, to attend concerts in real life as well as in the TSX Metaverse. With eight floors ranging from augmented retail and futuristic showrooms with LED screens, to a retractable stage hovering above Times Square and a ‘Retail Alley’ with a programmable tunnel for artists to display digital and analog content – TSXE is set to connect artists with their fans and favorite brands like never before. By complementing TSX’s Web3 capabilities, the in-person experience levels the playing field and unites entertainment-seekers into a collective.
In healthcare and travel, virtual and digital technologies are proving just as impactful. For the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, we aimed to improve the patient and family experience at the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care. In partnership with MSK Design, we were challenged to make cancer care less anxiety-inducing by using technology to enable patient freedom and improve their experience. There were two main problems: firstly, patients lack agency as they are admitted to healthcare facilities, which already sets up the hospital as an unfamiliar, sometimes unwilling destination. Secondly, with all of its constant monitoring, checking in, permissions, and codes, patients are often bound to bland waiting and treatment rooms for long stretches of time, giving them very little freedom or control over their time. We aspired to turn it into a space where patients could free up their time and use it more thoughtfully and productively during a stressful period. The solution involved a personalized Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) device to locate patients, caregivers and staff throughout the facility, enabling patients to move more freely, no longer tethered to their clinic, and providing optionality for where and how patients spend their time.
For many of these patients it is as if they are enrolling in campus life —spending weeks, maybe months in treatment. By using technology to enable freedom, we as designers can have a visceral, positive impact on the patient experience and be an active participant in their wellbeing.
Outside of healthcare, digital technology has been very effective at reviving analog historical destinations and exhibitions. Many established museums are currently facing the question: how do you revitalize a legacy destination in a way that’s respectful to its history but appealing to a next-gen audience? In revitalizing London’s iconic Battersea Station, we introduced digital elements such as animating technical drawings and introducing a digital tool kit that linked interactive tables with AR web apps, to engage audiences, breathing life into the historical destination. The digital elements worked cohesively together to tell different parts of a singular compelling story, allowing attendees to not just spectate, but participate in the Power Station’s rich history. This set the destination up for its next chapter as a dynamic entertainment destination with over 11 million visitors since its reopening in October 2022.
As interior designers, our role has expanded to include finding technological solutions that work in harmony with physical spaces. The rise of digital technologies has necessitated a shift in our toolkit, pushing us to create designs that connect emotionally with consumers. We have evolved from interior designers to creators of multidimensional experiences, signaling a new era in design where technology plays a pivotal role.
The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine.
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