Dornbracht – Hyper Fountain

Is Memory Data? Can a virtual experience cause the same reaction as the physical one? The aesthetics, the unusual use of VR technology and the immersive sound design make this installation a special event.

Hyper Fountain in cooperation with Mike Meiré.
Architecture: Meiré und Meiré.

Dornbracht - Research Lab

With "Hyper Fountain" the Dornbracht Research Lab seeks open-ended dialogue. It does not present ready-made solutions but involves the viewer in the process of innovation development. Using virtual reality it shows future scenarios and raises questions like: What does technology enable us to do? What potential does it have for experiencing water? What effect does this have on us – and is this desirable?

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The challenge

After several years being absent from the Milan Design Week Dornbracht was looking for an installation that stages the brand in an absolutely uncommon way. It was not mandatory to show products, but it should stage the innovative powers and thoughts behind the product development.

Water as an experience

The “Hyper Fountain” is an immersive virtual reality installation uniting an HTC Vive with Leap Motion hand tracking that lets you experience the element of water in an unprecedented, playful way. The digitally heightened virtuality mastered by the technology contrasts with what is a simple and seemingly provisional realm.

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A very interesting and touching finding was that users even felt impressions on their hands, even when there was no water coming from the hose.