Kincaid‘s latest development, dubbed Due North, brings a new level of luxury to rapidly gentrifying Preston. With a look and feel that speaks to Preston’s industrial history through raw and natural finishes, metals and glass, the building is to be fitted with an array of sustainable features including a 360 Enrich food waste management system and electric car charger ports. But it was the stunning rooftop swimming pool that inspired Kincaid to engage Champagne Soda to create a virtual reality display suite. They wanted to make the most of this key value proposition by allowing customers to experience walking around the rooftop garden area, something that would have never been possible without virtual reality.
Lucid Vue developed the plan from standard CAD files supplied by Kincaid’s architect, DKO Architecture. As a guideline for interior decoration, Kincaid supplied static renders they had already prepared from another supplier. We then found similar furniture within our extensive library of furniture.
The build process took six weeks end-to-end. In total, six prototypes were created over the course of the build. Kincaid suggested modifications and guided the design decisions by leaving comments on the prototype videos through our online collaboration software.
Kincaid wanted the virtual reality application to complement their traditional display suite, so a space was created in the foyer. We installed all the necessary equipment on site for them. Installation is quick and simple, but we spent the day making sure everything was spot on. We also ran a quick tutorial with their sales agents.
One of the great things about the way we build the 3D models for our virtual environments, is that static renders and promotional videos can be extracted at a very affordable price point. Here is the video that we created for Kincaid.
Less than two months after the project started, the first customers started coming through. Customers have freedom to walk around naturally within the “play area” or use the “teleportation” function. Other customers can stand back on watch what’s happening on the TV screen.
We would like to thank all the lovely people at Kincaid for their inspiration and support on this project. We cannot recommend their professionalism highly enough!