Narrative Environment

Across two documentary series we built recurring environments: a central space where complex scientific ideas turn into clear visual stories.

The space is an anchor between real-world exploration and explanation, letting the audience pause, understand and re-engage.

Both series share one structure:

• Field exploration introduces a discovery
• The story moves into the controlled space
• The idea is visualised and explained
• The story returns to the field

Lift the Ice: grounded

Discoveries from Earth’s frozen regions, from ancient history to future climate impact. The space is grounded to match: inspired by Tadao Ando, with minimal brutalist forms, controlled light and clear space for focus.

Spacetime Capsule: expansive

Scientific innovation and our place in the universe, from particle physics to cosmic exploration. The space is more futuristic and expressive, built for scale, curiosity and speculation.

Development started with sessions with the director, breaking complex science into clear, bite-sized segments. These became storyboards for flow, keyframes for composition and tone, and design variations to explore spatial and stylistic directions, so we could test how information sat in the space before production.

Lift the Ice

The brief asked for a neutral, minimalist “studio” that keeps focus and supports the story. Instead of several rooms, we built one adaptable gallery that shifts in scale, mood and expression with each topic. Many rounds went into balancing clarity and immersion.

The brutalist language draws on the weight and stillness of permafrost, with overhead light suggesting an enclosed space lit by the Arctic sky.

Spacetime Capsule

The same framework, read through a wider lens: from the deep sea to the cosmos, about human innovation and our place in a larger system. The space moves away from grounded architecture toward something futuristic.

A ceiling projection system and a floating ring that “builds” visuals in mid-air add a sense of process. The overall form takes its cue from camera lenses: observation, focus and discovery.

Previz set the spatial flow, camera movement and pacing in each environment, so transitions between segments stay clear, attention goes where it should, and space stays continuous across sequences. It was also how creative and production teams talked to each other.

Spatial design, motion and layered visuals turn abstract science into structured, engaging stories. These loops show the environments working in motion.