TREE DEER

Project

Haikou Duty Free Shopping City

Client

China Duty Free Group

Creative

Wētā Workshop

Build

Dafeng Industry

Location

Haikou, Hainan, China

Opened

October, 2022

Role on the project

Lead Design & Art Direction

In the Aura: Forest at the Edge of the Sky story world, there are many fantastical creatures with surreal qualities. The Tree Deer are one of the creatures that visitors can encounter in the physical atrium. A 6.6m high mother deer stands next to her 3.4m calf, looming over visitors with their impossibly slender legs and antlers full of light orbs. Like the large birds, their body is highly stylized and faceted. Underneath this colourful polycarbonate skin, an internal surface of illuminating pixel media display psychedelic moving patterns of texture and colour, as if you can see their vibrant souls animating inside their bodies. The sculptures respond to visitor touch and proximity, as colourful light and sound dances across their body and shimmer across the antlers’ orbs when activated.

DESIGN PROCESS

The Tree Deer were conceived through a exploratory concept art that imagines the various fantastical flora and fauna of the Aura story world. This gave rise to the unique proportions of the Tree Deer; tall slender legs like trunks in a forest, and an antler full of glowing orbs that cluster like tree canopies. Their skin would reflect the constantly shifting colour of the world around them. This gave rise to the idea of a dichroic body, producing prismatic colours during the day, before completely transforming into psychedelic lanterns at night through internal illumination.

The low polygon design language was conceptualised as triangular panels that construct the body – each panel being held up by a skeletal frame connected to an internal steel armature. Sandwiched between this armature and the cladding of triangular panels is a layer of flexible media capable of behaving as a low-resolution screen. When seen illuminated through the dichroic faceted skin, the resulting sculpture becomes the most unpredictable enchantment of colour and light.

Perforated metallic panels were designed into the body to allow for ventilation of lighting, sound and sensor equipment.