Australian video game and creative coding studio, Well Placed Cactus has assisted digital agency, Deloitte Digital Australia, to launch a first-of-it’s-kind, three-story high virtual garden as the centrepiece for ANZ’s new Martin Place flagship Sydney branch.

Designed to bring life and colour indoors the virtual garden is a digital take on the traditional vertical or hanging garden. The garden integrates external data to dynamically reflect real world seasons, weather and position of the sun.

The wall is the largest installation of its kind in the southern hemisphere, standing 11 metre tall. The project took Well Placed Cactus and Deloitte Digital seven months to craft.  

“We worked closely with Deloitte Digital to design a balanced and aesthetically pleasing scene that was engaging at all the different viewing heights,” Well Placed Cactus senior producer, Paul Stapelberg explained.

“We developed four seasons that had to be visually stunning, realistic and work seamlessly with the changeable weather and creatures simultaneously.”      

To add a level of interactivity Twitter was integrated to the Virtual Garden. People from around the world can tweet using the #ANZVirtualGarden to activate digital wildlife like butterflies, dragonflies, mushrooms, ladybirds, fireflies and flowers. Tweeters can also start a virtual waterfall, and change the colours of flora and fauna.

“From the initial Virtual Garden concept, we really wanted the display to be truly dynamic so that no two days appeared the same – the visuals evolve organically to the real world environment,” added Deloitte’s motion design lead, Rob Weir.

“The additional layer of customer interactions through Twitter really adds another dimension to surprise and delight branch visitors.”

The virtual garden is designed to add to the ambience of the ANZ Martin Place branch and to align with the bank’s commitment to innovation and technology. The installation is now open for customers to view and interact with.