“Unprecedented Journey to Shanghai” is a Mixed Reality (MR) experience that reimagines the legacy of László Hudec, a Hungarian-Slovak architect who shaped Shanghai’s skyline in the 20th century. Through immersive storytelling, users embark on a personal journey retracing Hudec’s migration, creativity, and architectural achievements.
Why is it significant?
In a time when architecture is often admired but not deeply understood, our project bridges that gap by inviting users not just to observe, but to emotionally inhabit the legacy of a forgotten master. We don’t just show history—we let you walk through it.
The MR experience is set at the China Baptist Publication Building, located at No.209 Yuan Ming Yuan Road—a historic site designed by László Hudec, who built over 60 structures across the city between 1920 and 1947, including the iconic Park Hotel.
This building blends Art Deco aesthetics with Gothic elements, reflecting Shanghai’s cosmopolitan energy in the early 20th century.
These elements became entry points for our design: how do we let people feel Hudec’s world through these forms? So to deepen our understanding, we conducted architectural research that traced both the stylistic and functional aspects of the building— and now, I’ll hand it over to my teammate, who will walk you through how these insights informed our spatial and interactive MR design.
What about when we couldn't be onsite? For the IMA show, since we had to present remotely, we built a small-scale physical installation as an interpretation of our MR world. It’s a wooden structure lined with visuals we designed ourselves. Inside, we placed real-world recreations of the virtual objects from Hudec’s office: photos, medicine bottle, printed letters, all echoing our digital narrative.
Children and visitors at the show interacted with it naturally—flipping open objects, triggering AR layers, asking questions.
This setup reflected the emotional core of our project:
Even when we admire famous buildings, we often forget to ask— Who built them? What did they feel?
Our installation tried to capture this tension—between public legacy and personal voice, between monument and memory.