Starlab
Year
2025
Client
Starlab
Service
App Design, App Development, Motion Design
Real-scale AR application for Starlab's investor and trade show activations
© Starlab
Navigation of 3D Highlight Hotspots
1:1 Scale in AR
The Challenge — Making Scale Believable
The central design problem was one of comprehension: how do you help an investor or partner truly understand the scale and spatial ambition of a commercial space station from a conference room or trade show floor?
Architectural renders and slide decks cannot communicate physical scale — the station's true dimensions, interior volumes, and the density of its technical systems only land when experienced spatially. The AR application solves this directly.
By anchoring the Starlab model to the user's real physical environment through image marker detection, the app allows anyone to place the station at full 1:1 scale — stepping around it, looking up at it, and understanding its size relative to the space they are standing in. For a project of this ambition, that moment of spatial recognition was the pitch.
The Build — Real-Time 3D in Unity for Mobile
The application was developed in Unity with a focus on performance, visual fidelity, and intuitive mobile interaction — designed to run reliably on iPad in live event conditions without specialist hardware or setup time. The 3D model of Starlab was optimised for real-time rendering at event scale, preserving the exterior architectural detail and key interior spatial zones that were most relevant for investor comprehension.
Core interactions included image marker activation to anchor the AR experience, free navigation around the 3D model to explore highlights and system zones, a launch sequence placing the station against an immersive space backdrop for context and atmosphere, and a 1:1 scale mode allowing users to stand physically inside the footprint of the station.
The result was a tool that conference and pitch teams could hand directly to a stakeholder and let the experience speak for itself.
Data Clouds
FIFA World Experience