Active AR users
1.73 billion by 2025.
Serina Orb
How can we redefine the experience of waiting for death through design?
Overview
This project proposes an experiential virtual space that redefines the experience of death, aiming to create a more compassionate, supportive, and meaningful environment beyond the clinical setting.
In Western culture, death is often viewed as a distressing and unwelcome event — an outlook intensified by the pandemic. Hospitals and clinics, designed for efficiency, rarely address the emotional needs of those facing the end of life.
Healthcare & Virtual Reality
Inspired by Superstudio’s 1960s vision of technology-linked futures, this project reimagines pre-death rituals through virtual reality (VR). Modern neuroscience reveals VR’s ability to activate the hippocampus — critical for memory and emotion — offering a pathway to reshape end-of-life experiences.
With AR/VR adoption accelerating worldwide...
In healthcare alone, market is expected to reach
$10.82 billion by 2025.
Population that has experienced AR is now up to
75% worldwide.
Value proposition
Enhances patient comfort and mental well-being
Builds a supportive community for patients, families, and caregivers
Optimizes data collection with real-time, multi-dimensional insights never achieved before
Always accessible — usable anytime, day or night
Spatial drawings — concept
The floor plan is designed as an experiential journey, using organic architectural forms to create creative and captivating spaces within virtual reality.
By playing with shapes, textures, and sensations, the design immerses users while prioritizing their well-being. This architecture invites reflection on the natural process of life and the transcendence of death.
Vital signs monitoring by area
Each area of the Serina Orb journey is designed to support different vital signs — heart, mind, and breath — promoting relaxation, emotional balance, and overall well-being.
The Solution experience
Serina Orb is an immersion program based on an experiential system of virtual therapy and meditation, to work on the emotionality of hospital patients on their deathbed.
Data monitoring
Through Serina Orb, users create a personal account to access unlimited meditation sessions, with their progress and performance data securely stored and available for both users and healthcare professionals.
This system not only personalizes the meditation experience but also builds a global network of shared insights, supporting real-time interaction and advancing future research and treatments.
Award & grant winner
Winner of the iF Design Award “Best of the Year” Grant & the Francesco Morelli Grant (2023).
