Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory

Design Factory Melbourne

Immersive experience design

In this Innovation Challenge, the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory asked DFM teams of interdisciplinary students to design an immersive, engaging experience for their new visitor centre. Their final designs include technologies and solutions which help to create a successful visitor experience, attracting revenue which could support the laboratory’s operations. Concepts include:

Multi-purpose space - a visitor centre focused on providing multiple experiences. An art gallery, a virtual reality experience, a guest speaker auditorium, and a restaurant are housed within a three-story circular building, providing guests with an open, flowing journey through the centre. Team: Alan L Meideta, Brian Kabuki, James Davies, Kezia Soesilo & Nadira Kinarisa

The SUPL band - an interactive wristband which uses an NFC chip, LED lights and haptic feedback to create personalised journeys for student groups as they interact with the installations. Team: Danny Phan, Lachlan Summers, Nicholas Segal, Samuel Losada & Theodore Beeby

Logical flow design – minimising boredom and maximising curiosity, visitors can choose how they navigate and interact with the centre. The design is eco-friendly and packed with exciting technology and spaces such as virtual reality, Bluetooth-connected headphones, motion picture rooms, planetariums, game areas and indoor gardens. Team: Claudia Phuah, Ben James, Daniel Benjamin, Evelyn Vania Ong & Khushi Gaikwad

Navigation and immersion - four elements which help to provide guests with a desirable experience, including a layout constructed with curiosity and accessibility in mind, a smartphone app that equips users with connectivity and navigation tools, a website that provides resources and a place for community, and an augmented reality helmet, providing immersion and entertainment. Team: Aaron Tenenbaum, Cadeyrn Rattur, Farah Al-Shirawi, Georgia Quinn, Jack Kavanagh & Niharika Tyagi

Industry Partner: Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory

Navigation and immersion - layout constructed with curiosity and accessibility in mind

Navigation and immersion - augmented reality helmet

Logical flow design - visitors can choose how they navigate and interact with the centre

Multi-purpose space - three-story circular building

The SUPL band

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.