Gem Dream Style: A Mirage of Reality and Illusion

Jiang Yuan and Song Chen's Award-Winning Exhibition Design

The inspiration for 'Gem Dream Style' came from the brilliance of gems, which stand as a symbol for Bvlgari. The designers aimed to blur the line between reality and mirage, immersing viewers in a space that is both real and illusory. The design reflects the ever-changing nature of jewelry and fashion, aligning with the different currents of time.

Unique properties of the design include an eight-meter high picture wall at the entrance, showcasing Vogue fashions of different times. The space is filled with sparkling diamond pieces of varying sizes, some of which are mirroring devices that blink at the edge, while others are diamond forms shaped with light-emitting frames. The interaction of these elements creates an endless expansion of floating diamonds, providing viewers with a dream-like experience.

The realization of this design was made possible through the use of soda architects' self-created "light reflection simulation program". Computer simulation was used to study natural diamond configuration, resulting in realistic diamond forms. The Serpenti logo of Bvlgari, lined up with an LED array, moves and flows on the floor, reflected back from the ceiling and overlapped in the air.

The exhibition was held at the Soka Art Center in Beijing's 798 Art District, China, from 1 November to 22 November 2016. The design aimed to immerse viewers in different space dimensions created by various scales of gems, and different fashion currents Vogue has been elaborating, providing a real sense of the jewelry in its particular time and dimension.

One of the challenges faced in the design process was presenting color together with light of high degree of revivification, as rich colored gems represent Bvlgari. The solution was to use 3M dichroic glass film, which changes with the movement of the viewer’s positions and angles, to inlay in several selected surfaces of the LED diamonds. This resulted in the brilliant colors in the exhibit hall refreshing themselves from time to time with viewers’ tours while the light on the cased jewelry remained the same.

The 'Gem Dream Style' design was awarded Silver in A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2017. The award recognizes top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs, admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcase a remarkable level of excellence and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.