Gold Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2025
Hypertank Recreation Complex
by Jeffrey Zee
- A' Design Award 2025 Gold Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: JFR Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 82,404
- Verification code 382CAD40B5 · Verify this award
About Hypertank Recreation Complex
Hypertank is an educational and entertainment complex that combines design expertise with visual artists to create captivating interstellar experiences. Inspired by mankind's obsession with interplanetary travel and cosmic phenomena, the project aims to construct sensory stimulations that inspire imagination and exploration. It includes spatial sequences such as boarding deck, interactive elevator chambers, a grand concourse, hibernation pods, transportation capsules, and leisure hubs. Guests can fully engage in galactic expeditions through interactive animations and customized resonances.
Hypertank Recreation Complex by Jeffrey Zee exemplifies the emerging genre of immersive experiential architecture that seeks to dissolve conventional boundaries between built environment and atmospheric spectacle, positioning itself within a lineage of theatrical spatial design that extends from baroque scenic innovation through contemporary planetarium architecture to cutting-edge entertainment venues. The work demonstrates exceptional command of environmental media integration, deploying massive projection surfaces that transform rigid architectural planes into portals of cosmic imagery while maintaining the structural legibility and material honesty of the industrial framework. The designer appears to engage deliberately with the phenomenology of threshold experience, creating a sequence of illuminated portals that suggest passage between realms while the reflected celestial imagery in the polished floor establishes a vertical axis of contemplation connecting earthly ground to infinite sky. Technical accomplishment manifests in the sophisticated calibration of multiple lighting systems operating in concert, from the warm amber linear fixtures that articulate architectural transitions to the cool ethereal glow of projected nebular forms, achieving a chromatic complexity that rewards sustained visual engagement. The thematic content seems to explore humanity's enduring fascination with cosmic vastness and the technological means by which contemporary culture creates spaces of wonder and transcendence within urban contexts. One might observe resonances with the tradition of sacred architecture that has historically employed light, scale, and atmospheric manipulation to induce contemplative states, suggesting that entertainment architecture at this level of sophistication participates in deep cultural patterns of meaning-making around spatial experience. The work invites consideration of how immersive environments reshape our relationship to built space itself, proposing that architecture might serve not merely as shelter but as apparatus for experiential transformation. What does it mean for our understanding of place when the boundaries between interior space and cosmic imagery become deliberately permeable, and how might such environments reshape our expectations of the spaces we inhabit?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Located in Fujian Xiamen, the historical seaport city of China’s southeast coast, Hypertank is a 4000-square-meters educational and entertainment complex that integrates dynamic spatial compositions, design technologies and multimedia artistic expressions to orchestrate an immersive, multi-dimensional, interstellar experience for guests of all ages.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 4342 square meters
Ceiling finish height ranges from 4m – 6m - Tags
- Interstellar, futuristic, immersive, lighting, entertainment, technology, interior design educational
- Production Technology
- Lighting and visual technologies include: kinetic lighting structure in steel, customized 3D curved LED panels, transparent LED screens, full spectrum programable LED light strips, high-resolution projectors, tailor-made visual art content for individual rooms. Main construction materials include: GRG glass reinforced gypsum, customized metallic and textured paint, patterned marble flooring, metal mesh, perforated steel panels, custom ceramic tiles, back-painted glass panels and mirrors, etc.
- Design Challenge
- Due to the complexity of interactive and immersive technologies, the project took on various challenges during the design and implementation phases. While design studies and final drawings are prepared with precise modeling and simulation, coordination with visualization and acoustic teams, as well as various engineers were conducted on-site and online on a regular basis. Testing of components and prototypes of various systems were performed to ensure manufacturing precision and installation.
- Project Duration
- The design for Hypertank began in June 2022 in Shanghai. The construction in Xiamen began in January 2023 and was completed in October 2023.
- Operation Flow
- The client operation team was involved with the design back in 2022 during the preliminary concept phase. Due to the size and complexity of the project program, all front and back of house areas as well as specific equipment installation requirements were carefully considered during the initial planning. Numerous mock-ups and models were constructed and approved before final production and installation. Weekly on-site and video meetings were conducted to ensure progress and quality control.
- Research
- To create the ultimate intergalactic experience for all guests, the design team and digital artists conducted a lot of research on the customization, implementation and integration of visual animations, resonance production, textured materials and construction methodologies throughout the intensive design process. Specific lighting details embedded within curvilinear geometries were 3D modeled and printed throughout all stages of design investigations, prototyping and manufacturing.
- Inspiration
- While our planet experiences intense solar activities in recent years, humanity is also going through an awakening process to higher consciousness. At the meantime, as our technology advancements further enable us to gain a better understanding of our universe, our obsession with space travel continues to grow. Hypertank's team aims to create an inspirational, educational and entertaining multi-verse environment with customized visuals and sound for guests to experience interstellar expeditions.
- Image Credits
- JFR Studio
Colors of Hypertank Recreation Complex
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Award-Winning Entertainment Interior Design
We create transformative commercial and entertainment spaces that captivate audiences through innovative design and technology integration. Our expertise spans luxury hospitality, flagship retail, and immersive entertainment venues across China and internationally.
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