realities united iluma interactive media facade

iluma has a facade of jewelled polycarbonate cells that glitter in the day and glow in the night
image courtesy realities:united

during our recent trip to singapore designboom discovered the iluma center, a ten-storey
shopping mall which is managed and owned by jack investment. the mall is located within
the bugis district and opened its doors on 28 march 2009.


the facade is a canvas for media artist to display their works
image courtesy realities:united

with a budget of SGD 100 million, the country’s first urban entertainment centre is
targeted at the young professionals in their 20s and 30s. the mall is able to cater for
up to 60 – 80 thousand consumers on a daily basis.


the tessellated plastic, embedded with lamps, envelops the convex sides of the edifice.
image courtesy realities:united

the new development (urban entertainment center) itself was designed by WOHA architects,
berlin based architects and artists realities united created a light and media facade, which had
to be effective both during day and night.


facade by day
image © designboom


facade by day
image © designboom


facade detail
image © designboom

the crystal mesh (CMesh) lends to the iluma building the ability
to dynamically express itself and to dynamically react to changing
activities within and to the urban surrounding. the installation,
which is identical with the building skin, aims to extend the architecture
and the building's inner activities.

by pure numbers, the CMesh installation is among the largest permanent
media facades, and also the first of its kind, in the world. by design, the
installations is singular as it aims at a new level of higher integration between
media and architecture. the CMesh has been developed in close collaboration
between WOHA architects (singapore), in charge of the general architecture of
the iluma complex and realities:united (berlin) in charge of the general concept
of the media installation, the design of the 'crystal' facade element system and
the concept of CMesh's authoring/ operating software.

the CMesh installation is equipped as a media installation and is made up of
thousands of individually controllable energy saving fluorescent light bulbs.



facade detail
image © designboom


facade detail
image courtesy realities:united


facade detail
image courtesy realities:united


crystal mesh prototype
image courtesy realities:united


crystal mesh prototype
image courtesy realities:united


crystal mesh scale model
image courtesy realities:united


crystal mesh scale model
image courtesy realities:united


crystal mesh on the construction side
image courtesy realities:united

see a video here

in 2000 the brothers tim and jan edler founded realities:united (realU),
a studio for art, architecture and technology. realities:united develops and supports
architectural solutions, usually incorporating new media and information technologies.
the office provides consulting, planning, and research, also undertaking projects for
clients such as museums, businesses, and other architectural firms.
one major focus of realities:united is architecture’s outward communicative capacity.
another is the quality of the user experience inside spaces, which in function and appearance
is essentially augmented and changed by additional layers carrying information, media content
and communication. some of the studio’s projects resemble classical architectural work,
but venture regularly into art, design, or technology research. most projects are intended
to serve as a catalyst in a given situation, and are therefore strongly determined by identifying,
transforming, amplifying, and combining various existing potentials. in that sense the approach
centres on taking advantage of available opportunities, rather than specific skills, procedures, or tasks.
although the majority of the projects incorporate new technologies or experimental approaches
in one way or the other, the work always aims to affect actuality, not virtuality.