Inside Exploria: Five Worlds of Immersive Nature Design

Nature exhibitions face an unusual design problem: how do you give spatial form to life that is extinct, microscopic, or almost impossible to encounter? At Singapore’s Mandai Wildlife Reserve, GSM Studios approaches that question through Exploria, a permanent indoor attraction spanning 10,000 m2. Commissioned by Mandai Wildlife Group, the experience uses scenography, digital media, and interactive storytelling to introduce 250 species without housing living animals.

A Central Hub Organizes Five Different Worlds

The layout begins with Our Interconnected World, a central hub from which visitors can freely explore five thematic environments. A monumental digital sphere anchors this shared space, presenting Our Planet Awakens, a multimedia show about the relationships connecting life on Earth. Spatially, the hub provides a common reference point for an attraction that moves between radically different scales and habitats.

Rather than reproducing each ecosystem literally, the design adopts interpretive environments. Sculpture, light, sound, and moving imagery establish recognizable themes while allowing shifts that conventional habitat displays cannot easily accommodate. Scientific content guides the experience, but its spatial language leaves room for imagination.

Changing Scale, Light, and Spatial Perception

In Realm of the Giants, monumental sculptural elements communicate the size of extinct creatures. Augmented reality brings visitors into encounters with prehistoric species, while a 360-degree multisensory show connects the evolution of life with mass extinction. Scale becomes an educational device, making dimensions physically understandable before the narrative adds context.

Micro Worlds reverses that relationship. Illuminated spheres, interactive exhibits, and physical models enlarge the worlds of plankton, insect colonies, fungi, and bacteria. Nearby, World of Darkness uses a labyrinthine layout to explore deep oceans and subterranean caves, linking visitors’ changing perceptions with the sensory adaptations of species that live without daylight.

The remaining environments broaden the range. Infinite Wonderland moves through rainforests, forest canopies, and coral reefs in a kaleidoscopic sequence. Bitdeer AI Extreme Frontiers examines deserts, polar regions, high-altitude ecosystems, and urban habitats, using mixed-media simulators with temperature and wind effects to make environmental conditions part of the encounter.

Interactive Technology Connects the Visitor Journey

A centralized RFID-powered system ties the worlds together. Visitors activate a personalized Explorer profile through a digital avatar, then unlock quests, collect species badges, complete challenges, and track their progress. The system gives individual encounters continuity across the wider attraction, encouraging visitors to keep investigating.

Montreal studio Dpt. designed and produced the 87 interactive installations with Singapore partner Electronics & Engineering. Wildlife media, missions, and gameplay turn scientific information into activities. From an exhibition-design perspective, this creates several ways to engage with the content, combining observation with physical interaction and personal discovery.

Coordinating Space, Media, and Scientific Storytelling

Delivering that continuity required coordination across disciplines. FORREC contributed attraction planning and design, Lightemotion developed the lighting, and specialist teams handled sound, show production, scenographic fit-out, and systems integration. GSM Studios led the concept and experience design and managed production through final installation. Opened on March 3, 2026, Exploria illustrates how exhibition design can make unfamiliar ecosystems approachable by connecting spatial experience with scientific storytelling.