Oyster City

Gibson International won a concept competition with French architects Triade and project managers Horizon to develop a multi-media tourism attraction in the famous oyster producing region of France, Marennes. Marennes is about 40 minutes drive from the Atlantic port of La Rochelle.

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The concepts feature:

A large multi-screen immersive show set in an estuary with real water and boats, viewed from a stylized wharf… 

A village of quaintly traditional oyster farmer “cabanes” built on a boardwalk raised above a central oyster pond on which children can race model oyster boats… 

The “cabanes” are in fact individual show spaces where a different aspect of raising (or eating!) oysters is treated by different scenographic techniques…

Cabane Dorée In a life-size pepper’s ghost theatre a “virtual chef” demonstrates how to make a number of different oyster based dishes – and you can use your bar-coded ticket to down-load the recipes of your choice to your own “Oysterland passport”.

Cabane vert treats the social history and idiosyncratic culture of the region in a series of sets and tableaux where portraits come alive and talk to us and a miniaturized peppers ghost theatre gives us a window on the future…

Gibson International is responsible for detailed exhibition and show design, the multi-media scenarios and their production, and the interior architecture of the complex. 

Cabane Rouge Four large LCD screens nestled under a glass-bottomed oyster pond treat the life and farming cycles of the celebrated “vintage” oysters of Marennes-Oléron.

Cabane Bleu A large inclined “table top” projection of a 3D map of the region forms the background for layered image sequences treating the ecology of the region, while motorized gobo projectors identify sites of interest on a 180 degree panoramic cyclorama of the region.