Battersea Power Station: Lift 109 Experience
29 Mar 2023
We did a deep dive into the rich heritage and legacy of iconic London landmark, Battersea Power Station for the Lift 109 experience and exhibition.
We created audio for the whole visitor experience, from interactive exhibits on the former power station.. and an immersive media room show … through to the breathtaking Lift 109, a glass lift which rises up through the north-west chimney before emerging from its top where you have a 360 panorama view of London.
The concept work involved reconciling the architectural and spatial narrative of the visitor experience (and its associated technical challenges) with creative ideas for how audio might activate and dramatise these spaces for visitors.
It was critical that the whole experience feels coherent and unified — and this required a solid concept that could feed into every stage of the visitor journey.
LETTING THE BUILDING SPEAK
Various interactives tell the story
CULTURAL TOUCHPOINTS
The assets gathered for the audio visual elements gave us a lot material for thinking about ways that sound / music might articulate the imagined realities that Battersea Power Station has helped frame.
Taking a critical look at these references, they broadly fall into two categories: Battersea Power Station as a dramatic backdrop and as a thematic catalyst
The first category takes in cultural references such as the Light Festival, Holi Festival, Channel 4’s Freeze, The Olympics, Top Gear and Red Bull X-Fighters, as well as music videos and cover artwork where Battersea Power Station is used as a dramatic staging device or backdrop. In all these cases they have their own separate narratives unrelated to the history of the Power Station.
The other category is the one we chose to focus in on, where cultural references such as Pink Floyd, The Dark Knight, Children Of Men, The Orb and Dr Who play with the history of the Power Station and the associated meaning it might have for audiences. In many of these cases the Power Station is used as a signifier for 20th century Industrialised Society and the associated implications this had on art and culture.
In particular, The Dark Knight and Children of Men use the Power Station as a frame for a fictional post-industrial landscape. In contrast to this, references such as Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ (in particular the inflatable pig video), Doctor Who ‘The Age of Steel’ and The Orb’s ‘Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld’ are more provocative and playful in the way that they reappropriate the image and history of the Power Station, rendering it as a kind of portal for a more multifaceted imagined reality.
Framing the Power Station as a kind of ‘call to action for the imagination’ became the underpinning theme of our sound work for the audio experience at Battersea Power Station, not only in terms of the way this proposes that visitors read the building itself, but also in terms of the rich music and sound worlds these three references invoke; from the colourful instrumentation and evocative arrangements of Pink Floyd to the iconic explorations in sound proposed by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for Doctor Who and the euphoric dance music collages of The Orb. We took inspiration from each of the sound worlds they propose and weaved them into a suite of soundtracks and soundscapes that accompany the visitor on their journey.
MEDIA ROOM
A dedicated space for an immersive 5 minute show in 7.1 surround brings to life the inner workings of the power station and how the energy it creates projects out to activate London.
The audio palette of this space is predominantly concerned with highly synchronised dynamic microsound textures that use the surround sound of the room to full effect; swarms of sound follow the animations, morphing from energy particles into steam and electricity, personifying the different types of animation using sound design, but allowing this also to coalesce into musical timbres and harmonies where necessary.
THE ELEVATOR IN THE ROOM
As the design for Lift 109 developed, a ubiquitous cultural reference became apparent — the great glass elevator from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.
Whilst this is a reference that is not rooted in the Power Station itself, given the concept framework of reading the Power Station as a ‘call to action for the imagination’, the narrative and playful provocativeness of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ fits well as an adjunct to the core themes, and became a subtle refence in the audio audio experience which we hope visitors have fun picking up on.
GOING UP….. AND DOWN
The lift experience alone breaks down into a number of ‘events’, of waiting, embarking, travelling, disembarking , arrival — all of which have their own states / qualities / tempos to honour, and we devised to seamlessly flow into one journey. It begins right from the moment you step into the lobby and take the stairs up to the lift… and that whole sequence in reverse on your return. It references the layers of time, the anecdotes of former workers, technical instructions, musical connections, context and the environment around the power station.
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Huge thanks to the whole team, we had a blast!
Lead consultant exhibition design and art direction of media: Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Media design input and production: Squint/Opera
Sound and Music Design: Coda to Coda
Architect: Wilkinson Eyre
Lift engineering/design: OTIS (main lift) and Schindler (express lifts)
Audiovisual hardware design and engineering: Sysco
Lighting design: Michael Grubb Studios
Security and MEP consultant: Steensen Varming
Project management and QS: Fraser Randall
Lead contractor: Beck
Destination strategy: Blace Bureau
