Schwebodrom: New Suspension Railway VR Experience in Wuppertal

(eap) Yesterday, a new experience museum called Schwebodrom, dedicated to the history of the “Wuppertaler Schwebebahn” – the historic elevated railroad of Wuppertal (Germany) – opened in the city district of Barmen. The experience was created in a cooperation between the Immobilien-Standort-Gemeinschaft (ISG) Barmen-Werth and Wuppertal Marketing GmbH (WMG). Three different stations await visitors in the attraction, covering an area of about 300-square-meters and immersing them in the history of the suspension railroad.

The experience starts with a show that uses sound and colourful light installations to tell the story of mobility in 19^th century cities. “The images shown compress the world of 19^th century mobility history in an artistic way. I process impressions from history in a very expressive way. The projection worlds fly apart and recompose themselves thematically again and again,” comments the designer of the show, Gregor Eisenmann.

In the second station, visitors can expect to see exhibits and pictures relating to the history of the suspension railroad and the innovative power of its inventors. The highlight of the exhibition, which was conceived by creative director Stefan Wintgen, is a nine-meter-long clamp brick diorama that traces the arc from the historic “Werther Brücke” suspension railway station to the modern “Stadion am Zoo” station. The model was designed and built by the Austrian start-up company Stone Heap, which spent around 800 hours of design work translating the original artwork into clamp building block models.

At the last station in the museum, visitors can enjoy a very special experience: a VR tour through the Wupper-Valley in 1929. After boarding an original suspension railway car – built in 1900 – and putting on VR goggles, guests experience the vibrant city in the twenties. The VR tour was implemented by the Bielefeld-based company mediaprojekt. “Visitors experience a living city. Fellow travellers can look in any direction, there is something to discover everywhere. We completely recreated the Wuppertal of that time in 3D – from the buildings to the people and vehicles to the authentic lanterns. It was fascinating to go so deep into that time,” explains Philip Bovensiepen, managing director of mediaprojekt. ■