SoReal Virtual Reality Entertainment Center

SoReal is a new virtual reality brand that provides complete entertainment solutions spanning proprietary VR hardware, VR games and VR movies to dedicated theaters and playhouses.

Ueberall International created the interior design for the inaugural SoReal flagship store in the heart of Beijing.

The creative team was challenged to conceive a unique physical space that orchestrates and dramatizes the visitor experience as a seamless transition from urban reality into virtual reality. Since there is very little precedent for the design of VR entertainment venues, Ueberall International needed to develop a new visual language that celebrates the excitement of the revolutionary new VR medium while remaining content neural, allowing for regularly changing entertainment programs and themes. To counterbalance the current VR technology’s focus on individual experiences that can have a somewhat isolating effect, the creation of opportunities for shared experiences was another objective critical to the project’s success.

All physical elements were designed as a modular “kit of parts” that can be reconfigured to fit changing needs of the evolving medium, turning this first flagship store into a flexible prototype that can quickly respond to specific behaviors and preferences of the visitors.

Dissolving media into space and dissolving space into media was the key design strategy. Accordingly, Ueberall International seamlessly embedded all media surfaces within one-way mirror wall elements and used projection mapping on curved semitransparent surfaces for the central portal.

Since the venue that can “learn” from its users, this entertainment center is generating extremely valuable insights into audience behavior in the realm of VR entertainment.

Design Team

Nikolaus Hafermaas, Ueberall (art direction), Raman K. Mustafa (design architect), Refik Anadol (media design), Jeano Erforth, Ueberall (project management)

Project Area

8,500 sq ft

Fabricators

Local Chinese fabrication