home | resume | published articles | contact me

Battersea Power Station
by Coleen Bondy

The Battersea Power Station now exists as a derelict, empty shell on the London skyline. Over the next five to six years, however, it will be transformed into a vibrant community offering a range of housing, theatres, shops, restaurants, night clubs, hotels, gardens, and commercial space for the film and media industry.

Parkview International PLC, the owners and developers of Battersea Power Station, employed London-based Random Media to create a Web site that would communicate Parkview's vision for the London landmark.

Because the project is only in the initial approval stages, specific plan details are subject to change. So rather than focus on the physical project, Random Media created a site that conveys what the project will embody.

Random Media chose eight concepts to explore, and then developed eight "moodscapes" around each concept using Macromedia Director Shockwave Studio and the Shockwave Multiuser Server. The eight concepts are play, celebrate, live, create, imagine, evolve, discover, and escape.

Within the site, visitors can play an interactive Pachinko-style game (play); conduct a custom fireworks displays (celebrate); create an organism called a Batter Bug and interact with other Batter Bugs via the Shockwave Multiuser Server (live); Paint images of the power station and email them to friends (create); View a 360-degree panorama of the planned interior of the power station (imagine); Navigate London streets to find the haven of the power station within a 3D environment (discover); View changing perspectives of the station over time through an interactive 3D model (evolve); and relax within an interactive dreamscape (escape).

After several years of architectural planning this Web site serves as a first tantalizing glimpse of what is to come. Over the years, the site will be developed into a major information resource for the development and eventually will serve as a portal to the Power Station's internal virtual network.

"As is always the case with good Shockwave content, we have found site retention to be quite phenomenal. The interactive and immersive qualities of the site cause people to spend a considerable amount of time exploring it," said Victor Benady, Random Media's creative director and owner.

Using Director, Random Media also reduced production time by 50%. "The new Imaging Lingo commands and Property Inspector greatly accelerate the work process, and external Lingo scripts vastly improve the collaborative work process," Benady added.