One of the creative projects became to do something about making the elevator ride to the 17th floor of The Sea hotel in Bodø a lot more exciting. In one of the first briefing meetings Thomas had with Rica CEO Jan Erik Rivelsrud, the idea had risen that it would be cool to make the far end of the elevator out of glass, so that you could look through it at the inside of the elevator shaft. This way, we could print something on the concrete of the elevator shaft that would really give the guests a virtual journey all the way from the first to the 17th floor. 63 meters that is.
First drawing of the elevator shaft motive.
Earlier, someone had came up with the idea to tag the inside of the shaft like a bucket of paint would have fallen and dripped all the way down, but Thomas noticed that Jan Erik wasn't really enthusiastic about that idea. When Thomas got back to his office after the meeting, he spend all night drawing out how this idea could be realized, and came up with the idea to let the guests travel from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, with something exciting to see at every floor. This way, the hotel personell could refer to the motive at each floor instead of the floor number as to where the guests would be sleeping. "Your room will be at the bubbles" instead of 9th floor. There would also be an interaction between the motive in the shaft and the buttons in the elevator.
One day later Jan Erik decided that this was exactly what he was looking for, and the detailed planning started of how it all would come together. Constructive meetings with the interior architect of the hotel (Scenario Interiørarkitekter AS) started, and because of the color profile of the interior that was planned to be light at the bottom floors to dark at the top floors, they decided that we had to be creative and turn the ocean surface upside down to meet the color profile. This way, you start at the ocean surface at the first floor, and dive into the water when you go upwards. At the top, the elevator surfaces again, but then at nighttime where a fisherman is barbecuing his catch of the day. This is also where the hotels restaurant is, so that seemed convenient.
First calculations and drawings of each floor level and the distance in between, including floor thickness.
Before the shaft image was put into production, Thomas had to make sure that the imagery where placed exactly at each floor, and that they would flow over into each other seamlessly. Careful planning and a close collaboration with the entrepreneur and architect resulted in a flawless design over the entire 63 meters of the shaft.
The finished digital file consists of more then 325 images shot on local locations all around Bodø showing the local underwater flora and fauna, as well as imagery shot on Hawaii, Teneriffe, Bergen and Holland to ensure a strongest possible concept with best possible details that weren't locally relevant. The entire file is as big as 4,7 Terabyte, and is printed on 0,7x59,4 meters.
Take the ride to catch a glimpse of how it turned out.
In the image below, you can take a more detailed dive into the design of the elevator shaft. It gives you a low quality impression of the entire shaft, with the red frames indicating each floor. The red frames mark precisely the area that will be visible when the elevator stops at each level, but they are not printed on the actual design.
From here on down, you will start at the 17th floor and descend until the 1st floor.