PWR Facility

In collaboration with PWR, Populous launched a first-of-its-kind architecturally designed elite esports training and content facility, created in the Fortnite metaverse.

The project was born from an idea of one of Australia’s most successful gaming content creators, Lachlan Power and his team, who originally envisaged the creation of a high performance content and gaming facility that could be built in the real world, but before anything, experienced in the metaverse.

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CHALLENGE. When PWR began their journey with Populous, they sought a way to express their brand further than their social media voice, logo and apparel.

The challenge was to create a facility that was intrinsically designed to exist and be experienced in both the virtual world and in reality. Populous explored how their logo could be designed to create a powerful connection and use that brand in the actual form and shape of the building itself. The deconstruction of the PWR brand’s ‘W’ as a solid mass was explored and the evolution of the design saw the brand elements move like masses to transform the logo into the building’s form and shape. By designing in the metaverse, many ideas were able to be examined and accommodated. The avenue to push the boundaries to design something in real life and virtually meant there were no restrictions on thinking too much about the site requirements. Instead, the team was able to put their creativity first and design a building that would be viewable in 3D, either from when a gamer is flying in above or from the street entry below.

INNOVATION. The PWR Facility is the first of its kind elite training facility built in Fortnite Creative — a new tool that has extended the freedom of expression for Fortnite players to communicate through the creation of their own universes, places and spaces — similar to the PWR + Populous collaboration. The power behind Fortnite Creative meant there was no need to code in complex CAD software while displaying how Fortnite Creative mode is a viable architectural visualization solution accessible to the gaming community.

For Populous, seeing a design evolve from a static Autodesk Revit-based model into a virtual training facility that can be tested by the gaming community before it has been built has been an exciting innovation for the architecture and interior design team. By using Unreal Engine, they were able to see how an elite esports training facility, designed specifically for PWR’s internal team and the gaming community, was able to be used as a social space for gamers to experience, test the design choices in the building and interact with the facility.

IMPACT. With the world of esports rapidly evolving, Populous has spearheaded the conversation around the design of world-class facilities for esports gamers to physically gather on a grand scale. Combining Populous’ knowledge and experience in designing elite training facilities and esports arenas, Populous has created the PWR Facility that is unlike anything in the metaverse.

A major focus for the project was to design a place where content creators could learn and refine their craft and encourage esports gamers to train to develop stronger health and wellbeing opportunities, an important priority for Lachlan.

The specialized design of this facility has created intentional spaces that promote the health, wellbeing and performance of PWR’s team and their community.

From the gymnasium to the active social areas and the cafe, the PWR Facility demonstrates it has been designed by an experienced team to create elite training facilities that optimize the performance and creativity for esports athletes and content creators.

This is an independently created Fortnite Creative experience and is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Fortnite or its publisher, Epic Games, Inc.