RTKL puts the future into the Trocadero

The Trocadero in London is gearing up for its grand opening as Europe’s largest indoor entertainment complex after a 45m redevelopment programme.

RTKL is handling the design of public areas, graphics and identity. This has included gutting three retail levels and several storeys of offices. The central atrium has been extended to 40m in height and the consultancy has put in 19 escalators.

“It has been themed as a futuristic transit station,” says RTKL architect Tim Baker. The contract value of the public areas was 25m, he adds.

The Trocadero identity appears on signage and is animated for the building’s 108 video screens. “A lot of virtual reality games are futuristic and involve planets,” says RTKL graphics manager Glyn Rees. This is reflected in the globe icon, he adds. The consultancy art directed all the identity’s animated sequences.

Software for the video wall, laser show and animatronics has been designed by Media Projects International in London’s Camden.

“The show has a futuristic theme of good versus evil,” says Media Projects International project coordinator Colleen Lamarque. The show plays regularly and lasts four and a half minutes.

The company has worked up RTKL’s “Troc Man” mascot into four robot characters who battle against the virtual monster, Trocadilla, in the spectacle.

Tibbatts Associates in Birmingham has created the Trocadero’s flagship attraction, Segaworld, a 9750m2 virtual reality theme-park (DW 28 April 1995).

The opening is currently scheduled for 20 August.

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