Mirax Group has been instrumental in the recent development of Moscow, investing in more than 2 million square meters of real estate for residential, commercial, and business purposes. In 2007, the company prepared to move its headquarters into the Federation Business Complex, the tallest building in Europe, which it is constructing on the site of the “Moscow-City” International Business Center. frog was commissioned to design an interactive display for the entrance to Mirax’s executive office that would communicate the corporation’s leadership in the Russian real estate market.
It was important for designers to understand the various behavioral reactions that interactive displays can incite from onlookers. When visitors are able to easily identify their own motions onscreen, they often respond with direct gesticulation, such as waving, to elicit further display animation. Aware of this effect, frog encouraged Mirax to create a more abstracted visual response, frog would be able to maintain a sense of motion and activity onscreen, while at the same time preserving the decorum appropriate to a professional space.
frog worked closely with the architecture firm Yabu Pushelberg to create a visual direction for the display that would harmonize with the overall office environment. We sought to express the dynamic nature of the urban landscape, the evolution of the city in which Mirax had been so instrumental.
The rug Yabu had chosen for this reception area, an aerial view of Moscow, presented inspiration. We conceived of the screen as an ephemeral cityscape. Beginning with a basic layout of the city streets, we developed a series of application behaviors that would allow abstracted buildings to grow, “floor” by “floor,” in response to motion through the space – so that, much like a city, the onscreen development is determined by human activity. Cameras track visitors’ motions through the room, then highlight their paths across the digital landscape. This development of buildings allows visitors to recognize their own impact on the installation, without provoking additional physical response. And because these developments remain onscreen long after an individual visitor has passed, they deliver a cumulative impact: growth facilitated by the collective motion of Mirax partners.
The point of view from which we see the city is continually shifting, panning from one randomly-generated coordinate to the next, to ensure that the installation is never static. The color palette changes slowly throughout the day and year, adjusting tonality in accordance with the movements of the sun and the seasons, the cycles of nature as well as the cycles of urban development. The overall impression is one of subtle growth and possibility, an ever-evolving panorama of Moscow.
The application was programmed to require only minimal upkeep, freeing Mirax from the burden of technical readjustments. frog supervised installation on-site, determining camera placement and screen dimensions so that the movements of every visitor would be reflected onscreen.
The display reinforces the core values of the Mirax group, occupying the intersection of creativity and construction, technology and ingenuity. The abstract cityscape comes to represent the unlimited possibilities in store for Mirax, and Moscow as a whole. Already, the company has enlisted frog for two new multimedia murals, to be built in the Grand Hyatt in 2008.
