A 3D digital rendering of a personal living space that is memorialized using video game design as a medium, created in Unity ProBuilder.
From the Archives — BFA Thesis, 2021
Project Snapshot
My Role
3D Artist, Concept Designer, Environmental Designer
Timeline
2020-2021
Tools
Unity ProBuilder
Where We Started
This project began with a question about memory and home. The intimacy of a domestic space often holds emotional weight that photographs and videos cannot fully capture. They preserve what a moment looked like, but not what it felt like. The small objects, background sounds, and familiar atmospheres are usually the first things to fade. I wanted to explore whether a digital space could hold those subtleties and whether an interactive environment could preserve the emotional residue of a place that no longer exists in my daily life.
The Problem
Background
A home can be a delicate gateway into memory. The tiniest pieces of a lived-in environment often carry the strongest emotional associations.
What Wasn't Working
Why It Mattered
I wanted to explore a medium that could hold both space and emotion. The goal was to create a digital environment that allowed me to revisit the feelings, routines, and energies of a past chapter in a way that felt uncannily close to reality.
Discovery & Understanding
I began by studying the emotional components of the original space rather than simply replicating its layout. I paid attention to the objects that had meaning, the ambient sounds that colored the atmosphere, and the subtle environmental cues that made the space feel lived in. I also explored principles from environmental storytelling in games, focusing on how light, audio, space, and movement can evoke memory more powerfully than static visuals. This informed how I would reconstruct the space inside Unity, not as a perfect copy but as a sensory interpretation.
Design Strategy
Goals
Recreate the emotional atmosphere of the home
The experience should feel familiar, immersive, and introspective.
Preserve the significance of everyday details
Small objects, background sounds, and spatial cues should guide the emotional experience.
Use interactivity to deepen the sense of presence
Users should be able to move through the environment and form their own connection to the memory.
Guiding Principles
Prioritize emotional truth over realism
The design should communicate feeling rather than technical accuracy.
Let mundane details become meaningful
The ordinary should have the ability to hold memory and narrative weight.
Create a space that feels suspended in time
The environment should feel lived in and present, yet slightly distant and dreamlike.
Exploration & Decisions
Most of the exploration for this project came from learning the tools while building the environment itself. I taught myself the fundamentals of Unity, 3D rendering, and basic game design during the creation process, which meant the project evolved through constant trial, error, and discovery. Early versions experimented with different applications of the medium, including AR and VR concepts that pushed the idea of memory into alternative formats. As I became more comfortable with the tools, the environment grew more focused, and the emotional intention behind the piece became clearer. Instead of following a fixed blueprint, the space revealed itself gradually. Lighting choices, object placement, and environmental sound design all emerged through experimentation, guided by how each element shaped the feeling of inhabiting the memory. The project developed not through strict planning, but through a hands-on exploration of what the medium could hold and how the technology could support the emotional depth of the concept.
Final Experience
The final experience invites viewers to explore the digital home quietly and at their own pace. There are no prompts or instructions. The storytelling comes from the environment itself. Ambient sounds echo the daily routines that once filled the space. Objects sit in places that once held significance. The lighting suggests a time of day that feels emotionally resonant. The environment becomes a living archive. It allows me to revisit people, experiences, and versions of myself by reentering the atmosphere that shaped them.