SHISEIDO FOREST VALLEY

Ignite Your Senses

Can a wondrous ‘indoor forest’ be the confluence of nature, beauty and art?

Imagine an immersive art installation across four storeys of lush greenery within the iconic Jewel at Changi Airport. It couldn’t be more apt. 

The S E N S E art installation is the result of a collaboration between SHISEIDO and teamLab, a Tokyo-based interdisciplinary art collective. An experience that truly engaged the senses of sight, sound, scent and touch for visitors.  

An app to navigate through the different senses

We created the S E N S E app to guide people through the four levels. Each is designed to highlight a different sense and the app is linked to Bluetooth beacons that pick up on one’s location. This means anyone can start the experience anywhere on the four levels and take whichever route they please.

Seeing beauty

During the day, the trees that hug the walkways dance with komorebi (the unique Japanese expression for sunlight filtering through tree branches). At night, each glows with coloured lights that puff gently in and out, as if it were breathing. For this reason, it is called the Resonating Forest.

The sound of nature

There is a soundtrack for both day and night designed to mimic the breathing of a natural forest. It isn’t obvious at first. But if you tune in carefully, this experience conjures a soothing feeling of peace and tranquility.

Scent therapy backed by science

SHISEIDO cleverly worked its trademark Ultimune scent by fragrance designer Dr Tomonori Ueda into the installation. The presence of rose and lotus have shown through research to rouse one’s olfactory senses, relieving stress and inducing calm. 

Making touch meaningful

On the topmost floor of
S E N S E, one can write a message on the app and ‘hang’ it on a virtual SHISEIDO Tree for other users to share. An inspiring way to cap off a meaningful and an almost meditational experience. 

Shiseido Forest Valley featured in Condé Nast Traveler, TripAdvisor and UrDesignMag online publications.

Ranked as one of the top things to do in Singapore on

A personal take

Not many projects would have the creative team, UX folks and project managers walking the ground. But we did just that – putting ourselves in the shoes of a user navigating the trail. Essentially, this was a project grounded in CX (customer experience) but brought to life by UX (user experience). And we couldn’t be happier with how our labour of love turned out.

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I am Ravi Mirchandani, a copy-based creative with 15 years’ experience in creative copywriting, digital storytelling and content strategy.