The Gaia - Luxury Habitat concept revolves around prefabricated, self sufficient pods which can be deployed quickly to create luxury eco resorts. Valcarce Architects wanted to tell the story of the Gaia concept in a variety of environments and moods.
To assist with this, Virtuelle created a virtual reality experience built with Unreal Engine 5. The experience places the Gaia pod in 3 different environments representative of where the Gaia pod might be placed. These include a remote tropical beach reminiscent of the Costa Rica or the Philippines, an Al Ula inspired Arabian desert Oasis, and a Maldives-style environment on the World islands in Dubai.
Users can freely roam the areas, where multiple Gaia pods are placed in a resort style setting. The user can enter selected pods and observe the sleeping area, bathroom, dressing, materials, and space. Dynamic sun and weather controls allow the creation of various moods and atmosphere, from sunrise in the desert to warm night over the Dubai skyline.
The experience was presented at the Stakeholder Conference 2024, on a 4x2m LED screen. Content was also extracted to provide Valcarce Architects with emotional still images and videos to further enhance marketing efforts.
