NOVA is an experience bar designed to show a new and innovative way of drinking.
When designing NOVA it was important to include VR as an experience to allow customers to get the most out of the space and enjoy engaging with everything the bar has to offer. Virtual Reality is becoming the future of design in so many different ways from showing how finished designs look to clients, to using it in spaces to get customers involved and introduce them to new technologies. It was also important to include an innovative way to drink cocktails in NOVA, since there was a running concept of space travel and technology within the bar. The decision was made to have an experience zone where customers can drink cocktails made in front of them from dehydrated powders, set up like a science experiment.
A big inspiration for NOVA was the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the time it came out it was an eye opening, futuristic film that introduced technology and space in a new way, you can see in the visuals for NOVA that some of the furniture from the iconic Hilton Hotel scene are used on the ground floor.