St James Quarter, Edinburgh

Luma has had a long term involvement in the St James Quarter project from early design stage through to completion. Our close integration with the design team and client base allowed us to create innovative solutions at every stage of the project.Initially commissioned by the project architects Allan Murray Architects, to visualise early concept designs. We went on to develop visual impact CGIs, animations and the development of an iPad app to allow planners to visit key locations around the city and view the future development ‘virtually’ overlaid on the site giving added confidence to their decision making.Following successful planning approval we were commissioned to produce high quality visualisation material for marketing, sales and public engagement, covering the retail, food and beverage, hotel and event sectors.Because of our early integration within the design team, we have been able to accumulate and refine a large variety of valuable data, generated by all consultants in the design team, putting it to innovative uses for purposes beyond their original intent such as: interactive VR tours, augmented reality, online interactive tours, walk through animations and testing of design concepts for client approval. These innovative solutions were used to add value from the very beginning.One of the biggest challenges we faced was bringing a project of this scale to life.  The entire development was fully populated to allow views to be taken from any angle and with the addition of animated elements such as people, vehicles, lighting fx along with audio to create the right ambience. We also had to develop new methods in rendering, memory management and at times working closely with the software developers, customising their product to achieve our desired results.Our digital approach and solutions came into their own during the pandemic where remote communication of high quality material became essential in the later commercial phase of the project.Through our involvement and the flexible development of innovative tools for our client at every stage of the process, our client has developed new practices and ways of working going forward.