Prototype for Living Lands

Help me develop a prototype for a new way of teaching about our environment that is interactive and experience-oriented—using augmented reality in 3D.

Living Lands is based in the Jungfrau Region and aims to inspire adults and young people of school age and teach them about the essential roles of ecosystems.

This is done with the help of an interactive, experience-oriented poster that is enhanced with augmented reality.

The goal is to promote a society that understands the need for healthy ecosystems and makes decisions that favor a livable future.

Using an app, users scan their poster to activate an interactive 3D landscape on their smartphone or tablet. This landscape is filled with interactive content on climate, biodiversity, alpinism, and the region’s tourism history.

This playful and immersive approach promotes a deeper understanding and ensures that knowledge is absorbed more sustainably. It helps people understand not only the facts, but also the urgency of the challenges and the importance of intact ecosystems for our common future.

What makes my project special is that its playful and interactive approach makes complex topics more accessible and easier to understand, with the aim of re-engaging and inspiring people rather than overwhelming them.

The Jungfrau Region was deliberately chosen. Its popularity naturally attracts a large target audience. At the same time, its diverse ecosystems provide the perfect basis for the key topics of climate and biodiversity. These are supplemented by the topics of alpinism and tourism (history). This has the advantage of arousing the interest of more people and also makes it possible to show how natural and man-made ecosystems are linked.

The project has two target groups: the first is visitors to the region itself. This commercial target group is intended to make the project financially self-sustaining in the long term so that it can be maintained, supplemented with new content, or even expanded to new regions. It is particularly interesting that the middle of society can be addressed here. This is a crucial population group when it comes to the core concerns of the project. The second, even more important target group is young people of school age. The educational aim is to raise awareness of the essential role of ecosystems at an early age and to empower young people to participate in debates of all kinds and motivate them to take action for their future. Together with partners such as the Bern University of Teacher Education, the project is set to find its way into classrooms.

Now I need your support! The goal of the crowdfunding campaign is to develop a working prototype of Living Lands—the final, crucial piece of the puzzle needed to convince large funding foundations.

Several smaller foundations (Bern Design Foundation, SCNAT, Burgergemeinde Bern) have already pledged their support. This covers around two-thirds of the costs for the prototype. Now all that’s missing is the last third, which I would like to finance with your help via this crowdfunding campaign.

The first target amount would cover the minimum required to develop the prototype over the next 6–8 months. Ideally, additional goals can also be achieved to make the prototype even more convincing and comprehensive in terms of content.

Why a prototype? The project is extensive, ambitious, and correspondingly finance-intensive. While smaller foundations are already on board, large funding institutions understandably require a «proof of concept»—i.e., evidence that the concept actually works.

That is why the focus is now on developing this first working prototype: it should show how Living Lands conveys knowledge about ecosystems, climate, and biodiversity in an innovative and emotional way – and thus pave the way for the next, larger round of financing.

Financing objectives – What’s included/possible:

• The basic goal: I can incorporate one interactive topic each on «climate» and «biodiversity.»
• 1 Additional objective: I can add a third interactive core topic.
• 2 Additional objective (ideal goal): I can integrate a fourth interactive core topic. The big advantage of four integrated core topics is that these topics will already be able to convey how everything is interconnected. This will allow me to convincingly communicate one of my central concerns of the project in the prototype, which in turn will be helpful for future funding contributions.
• Best case scenario: I can also work on the topics of «alpinism» and «tourism/history» in detail, which in turn would be a big plus for the overall persuasiveness of the prototype in potential partnerships.

The project already has broad scientific and institutional support. Support comes from ETH Zurich, SLF/WSL, the University of Bern, and SCNAT, as well as organizations such as UNESCO – SAJA, Pro Natura, WWF, and SAC. Dr. Theresa Tribaldos (CDE, University of Bern) is assisting me with the conceptual design, and collaboration with EPFL Lausanne (via BeLEARN) is planned for the AR and app development.

There is a great deal of interest and strong support – now all that is missing is the prototype as the key to the next step.

And what is behind the idea of «Living Lands»? The project arose from a desire to create something meaningful that combines my existing skills in graphic design and illustration with something new that interests me: 3D design. I wanted to combine all this with what is close to my heart: the Alps and our environment – in order to make a contribution. «Living Lands» stands for a new, future-oriented form of knowledge transfer: playful, interactive, and visually appealing—to get people excited about topics such as climate change and biodiversity.

Do you share this vision and want to contribute to the next big step? Then I would be delighted to have your support!

I am always available to answer any questions you may have—the project should grow openly, transparently, and collaboratively.

Best regards, Vincent