Architecture firm and installation studio: Red Deer and Voodoo Vision, London

The details: The digital realm explodes into living color at Otherworld, London’s new cocktail bar and virtual reality arcade of the future. Local architecture firm Red Deer partnered with installation design studio Voodoo Vision to skew reality through lighting design inspired by artists Dan Flavin and James Turrell. “The physical design was intentionally pared back and made as minimal as possible to allow the light to form the main element of the interior,” says Lucas Che Tizard, founding director of Red Deer.

The hypnotic lighting illuminates unique textures as well as the smooth gradients and faded colors used to soften each corner. More than 5,000 LEDs are employed to dramatically infuse surreal fluidity throughout the main room, with nearly 1,800 strips fixed on the bar face alone. Arched ceilings also support the design’s efforts to distort internal dimensions.

“We approached this breakdown of perception through the medium of light because vision is arguably one of the easiest of our five senses to alter,” says Tizard. “We wanted to take this blank canvas and create a space with depth and warmth.”