The Forestias - Imagine happiness Mission MQDC’s ‘The Forestias’ – Thailand’s largest property development project located in Bangkok – is the world’s first place designed as a sustainable ecosystem where people, wildlife, and nature can live and evolve peacefully side by side. The master plan project aims to create a sense of wonder and joy through an ingenious blend of nature, architecture, and leading-edge technology. Creating an innovative, multi-generation community that brings together the best of leisure and conservation for a healthy and happy lifestyle. MQDC invited VAVE Studio in collaboration with Bug Studio to design an ‘experience center’ inside the ‘Forest Pavilion’ designed by Foster+Partners. A place to showcase the vision and concept of the project through extraordinary immersive experiences. Idea To illustrate the relevance of a healthy and happy living environment, VAVE conceptualized an unconventional real estate showroom, beyond product presentation, providing a journey of “seeking for happiness”. Though much interactive media was used VAVE camouflaged all technology with the senses of nature, offering a multi-sensory experience through human-centric interfaces. As part of VAVE’s philosophy #SpaceExperienceDesign, technology is not a destination but a tool, that only appeals on-demand and unveils information only if seeking for it. Design The journey begins in an imaginative nature environment, peering through windows in search of reality. As you approach the space, the ‘Lobby Area’ welcomes you to a vivid content surrounding of different nature scenarios: ‘The Land of Everlasting Happiness’ The ‘Chamber of Secrets’ is an immersive 360° cinema that is exploring the secrets of happiness through an emotional narrative, raising the question to visitors: Where can I find happiness? The ‘field of senses’, invites the visitors to truly discover the meaning of happiness from five dimensions. A series of multi-sensory interactive experiences focusing on sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. Through each sense, visitors can unlock a mesmerizing world of possibilities that resonate with people’s emotions. At the ‘Nature Walk’ visitors get immersed in a vast interactive forest inhabited by flowers, plants and animals native to Bangkok and its region. The artistic ‘Flora & Fauna’ installation, made by kinetic origami paper and mapped with audio-visual projections, is transforming the space into a ‘living forest’ environment. As visitors proceed, the forest changes from morning to night and let people experience the miracles of living with nature. The ‘Gallery’ is showcasing ‘The Forestias’ masterplan from various perspectives. At first sight, visitors are surrounded by a huge photo collection - at the second glance, the interactive picture frames provide multi-media content that is sharing insights about the different residential, commercial, leisure, and conservation components of the project. After discovering different levels and meanings of happiness, the visitors finally find the answer: Happiness is not about collecting things, but moments that people can remember, experience and share. Seeking this place of happiness, the visitors are invited into the last room: ‘The Model Room’. By using AR technology, the masterplan model and the panorama view above the construction site of this new lifestyle destination will be overlapped by a future scenario. For something, we can’t see but we can imagine. This is the core meaning of the project manifesto: ‘Imagine happiness’.