Even an elevator can tell a story across the day.
technique — attributed to Colin Cowie
Cowie illustrates story-telling in an unlikely place. An elevator in a real-estate project. The default is a single harsh experience with bright white light. His version changes across the day. At eight in the morning, classical music plays, the light is bright. At six in the evening, the rhythm shifts, the light dims slightly, the volume comes up. By midnight, the lighting has come way down, the music has changed, the space feels sexy. The story has a beginning, middle, and end across twenty-four hours. The technique generalizes. Spaces designed for a single hour cannot tell a story across a day. Spaces designed across the day produce the texture residents and visitors describe as alive.
For real-estate developers, hospitality designers, and ambient-environment producers. The technique is most useful as an argument against single-state lighting and music design in spaces that people pass through repeatedly.
elevator-design, time-of-day, ambient-storytelling, real-estate