OVerview

A global initiative with the Greek government and Microsoft to digitally preserve the ancient site of the Olympics using AI, AR, and mixed reality technologies.

I led the creative execution of the project’s four main deliverables: AR mobile app, HoloLens 2 experience, interactive website, and museum exhibition design.

ROLE

Creative Director, Senior Design Director

CLIENTS

Microsoft, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport, Prime Minister of Greece

TEAM

A_DA, Listen, Yeti, Glowbox, Invisible Thread, DEDE

Project links

Website, iOS app, Android app, Exhibition info

The Problem

The structures and spirit of the ancient Olympic Games are being lost to modernity.

The Solution

Use cutting edge technology to digitally preserve and restore Ancient Olympia as it stood over 2,000 years ago and bring people together through its ancient values.

1. Visitors to Ancient Olympia in Greece

2. Greeks proud of their heritage

3. Fans of the Olympic Games

3. Curious global at-home users

1

2

3

4

The Ancient Olympia mobile app invites users to explore the grounds of the ancient games and visit 27 monuments digitally restored to their ancient glory.

Users navigate a map of the grounds and tap each monument to learn about its history and interact with its architecture in 3D. They can then place it in their space using AR and and scale it up to 1:1 scale. Users can then be transported into select monuments to experience what it was like inside the ancient spaces. Each monument features VO and historical imagery to capture the monument’s full story.

The app can be experienced anywhere in the world but contains added features for users at the UNESCO site of Ancient Olympia.

While at Olympia, the app turns into an AR-powered tour guide with wayfinding to guide visitors around the expansive grounds bringing to life the ancient monuments from the modern ruins.

To download the app search "Ancient Olympia" on the iOS and Android app stores.

Through an interactive, educational, and in-depth 15 minute experience, HoloLens 2 users relive the ancient games. Users move around a tabletop recreation of the ancient site, uncovering holographic visuals and ancient artifacts that bring to life the games’s legends and lore including the workshop of the sculptor Phidias, the Temple of Hera, the stadium, and the famed the Temple of Zeus.

At the end of the experience, the table is blanketed in a detailed photogrammetry model of the UNESCO site today with a call to action to preserve the site and to live by the enduring values of the ancient games.

A massive scale model of the ancient Altis was designed and 3D printed to depict the ancient games in the year 173 CE. The 4-meter long table depicts 27 of the major monuments and acts as the backdrop for the HoloLens 2 experience.

Users hold out their hand to get a closer look at the Temple of Zeus. Afterwards they are transported inside to behold the scale of the statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the world.

Ancient rituals come to life around the user immersing them in thousand year old traditions.

To make the story of Ancient Olympia accessible to users around the world, a microsite was created inviting visitors to explore the grounds and share how the values of Ancient Olympia impact their lives.

The website leverages the latest web technologies to enable users to explore in 3D, go inside to experience monuments such as the Philippeion and Temple of Zeus in full 360°, take a video flythrough video tour of the site in 173 CE, and interact with a timeline showing the development of the games and monuments over time.

Launch the website here.

An exhibition bringing together each part of the project was installed at Athens Olympic Museum in Greece, a cutting-edge institution dedicated to the history of the Olympics and the 2004 Athens summer games. 

The exhibition introduced visitors to the breath of the initiative and invited them to experience the history, importance and impact of the ancient site through hands-on interactives including the HoloLens 2 experience, mobile AR app, and interactive website.

The exhibition is currently on view through 10/11/23. More information here.

Exhibition Overview

1. Introduction area

2. HoloLens 2 experience

3. AR app area

4. Ancient Olympia reconstructed theater

5. Website and contribution area

• Over 200 active app users per day at the site of Olympia

• 5,000+ value submissions on the website

• Athens exhibition extended from one year to two due to overwhelming demand

• Website and app integrated into school curriculums across Greece and the world

• Project featured on Fast Company and Design Week

“Common Grounds is a unique way of experiencing Greece’s proud cultural heritage. Visitors around the world can virtually visit the ancient site of Olympia and experience history firsthand using augmented reality technology.”

— Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece

Web and app stills taken from device screen captures. Other media by A_DA & Microsoft.