Covering 30,000sq-m with more than 160 stores, bars, restaurants, play area and a casino, FoxTown Factory Stores was the first factory outlet centre in Southern Europe when it opened in 1995. As the management team planned an expansion in 2022, they conceived a new entertainment experience – The Sense Gallery, Switzerland’s first multisensory museum.
The Sense Gallery was brought to life in January 2023 at the Mendrisio site, a small town in southern Switzerland, under the leadership of Luca Gambardella. Tasked with creating an immersive and modern digital space for FoxTown, Gambardella envisaged a fusion of science and art designed to engage the senses and provoke reflection.
Created in collaboration with Compagnia Finzi Pasca –known for work with Cirque du Soleil and Olympic ceremonies – The Sense Gallery became an extraordinary space where ‘nothing is as it seems’, and features immersive rooms designed to awaken the senses of its visitors through the use of A/V technology and tailored sensory experiences. By summer 2023, a team of artisans and artists joined forces to shape six rooms – Tunnel of Light, Upside Down World, Infinity Room, House of the Fox, OLTRE and Enchanted Forest – using A/V to offer an immersive experience, transporting visitors into its mesmerising worlds.
‘After the project was approved, we began looking for reliable A/V partners,’ says Valerio Tartaglia, IT Manager of Tarchini Group, owner of FoxTown. ‘For The Sense Gallery, the requirements of the ideal partner matched perfectly with the profile of Leading Technologies.’
The journey through The Sense Gallery begins in the Tunnel of Light. As visitors pass through the portal of illusion, vibrant lightscapes dance and intertwine ‘like dreams coming to life’. Mirrors amplify the enchantment, multiplying sensations and transporting attendees on an exciting journey through time and space accompanied by ethereal harmonies with a synthesised backing track. Leading Technologies installed AtlasIED SM52T surface-mount loudspeakers for this room, cleverly hidden among the light displays and positioned outside the tunnel.
The loudspeakers comprise a highly efficient woofer section and FerroFluid-cooled, titanium dome high-frequency driver. Vocal and musical clarity is optimised by the advanced design of the AtlasIED TRX Control WaveGuide high-frequency director, and provide visitors with clear and detailed sound, using hearing to guide them through the tunnel. AtlasIED’s 1.2kW DPA1202 multichannel amplifier powers the loudspeakers.
The journey continues into the Enchanted Forest, where visitors follow a magical path that draws them closer to the primordial beauty of nature with each step. Every corner of the room offers a complete immersion into nature, with mirrors and video projections harmoniously integrating with natural elements to craft a magical and captivating atmosphere. Here, an AtlasIED DPA1202 amplifier powers the room’s audio, consisting of bird calls, vocalisations, and other background sounds expected in a forest primeval.
Throughout The Sense Gallery, visitors experience a dynamic, exciting and multisensory journey, an adventure guided by the use of light, colour, images and sound.
‘We are proud to host such a groundbreaking initiative and push the boundaries of both visual and sensory design,’ Tartaglia says. ‘Much of that was made possible by AtlasIED’s amplifiers and loudspeakers, which are among the most advanced on the market.’
More: www.atlasied.com