Empire 3D

Finally setting my Rone photos in an album, when I returned to Rone's Empire site to check one or two details. Imagine my amazement to find you can now do a 3D virtual tour of his Empire project.

The Dining Room (Rone)

Firstly what was Empire - 

High in the Dandenong Ranges, a sprawling art deco mansion lies empty, nature creeping through its crumbling walls. This was Burnham Beeches. Built in 1933 for the Nicholas family (Alfred was a wealthy industrialist and founder of the Aspro brand), it is an Art Deco Streamline Moderne style mansion. It has been a research facility, childrens hospital and luxury hotel, before being closed in the late 1990s. The whole property was purchased by Adam Garrison & Shannon Bennett in 2010, but the mansion remained empty. 

In early 2018 Rone was offered the opportunity to utilise the building to create a series of murals. His idea was of a unsuspecting visitor walking into an abandoned residence and discovering what has been left behind in the remains of the lives lived inside the mansion. It was Rone's most immersive installation to date, his hauntingly powerful portraits augmented by sound, light, scent, interior and botanical design elements, in addition to VR and AR technology.

The Lounge (Rone)

It took more than 12 months, for the work of painting and styling to transfer the former derelict building into Empire. Roll video...

 

For those lucky enough to get the limited tickets, there was a 6 week season where you could stroll through the installation, before it was all stripped away and returned to sterile white walls. 

For those unlucky enough to miss out, and for those like me who want to re-visit again and again, there is now the 3D virtual tour.

 

Not quite the same as being there, but it does allow you to target in on aspects or details you missed - like the tree tunnel - a whole lot clearer without the dust cloud that pervaded it, adding atmosphere, but took my second walk-through to spy out the book leaves. And if you missed it - this is your chance to catch up, so check it out.

It was an awesome, unforgettable experience on the day, and this just adds to it. Thank you technology & Rone.

My favourite room, and the Home screen on my phone