Kitchen and bathroom manufacturer plans immersive VR experience

German-based Dornbracht turns to virtual reality to build positive brand awareness

Spotted: German kitchen and bathroom manufacturer Dornbracht showed off its immersive virtual reality (VR) experience at this year’s Milan design week. The Is Memory Data? installation explored different ways to interact with water and consists of a simple bucket and hose. While visitors played with the real water, the VR goggles turned the experience into an interaction with a marble basin fountain that releases eccentric water droplets and other shapes.

“You feel the water flowing over your hands, but your eyes see something completely different in the VR. You experience changing materials and interacting with them,” Mike Meiré, the brand’s creative director, told Dezeen.com. “It is very interesting to see what this does to the brain and especially to your senses.” Dornbracht referred to the installation as an “emotional water experience that touches all the senses.”

This is the first project to come out of the Dornbracht Research Lab. Meiré launched the research project to focus on the intersection between technology and water.