Interactive Kids’ Atelier at Port des Lumières

At Port des Lumières, the interactive Kids’ Atelier experience relies on Modulo Kinetic

In April 2025, Hamburg became home to Port des Lumières, the largest permanent center for digital immersive art in northern Germany. Operated by Culturespaces, the venue offers large-scale audiovisual exhibitions powered by over 75 video-projectors and Modulo Pi’s Modulo Kinetic media server. Among its highlights, a room dedicated to interactivity stands out: the Kids’ Atelier, an imaginative playground where young visitors co-create and engage with the art in a playful, immersive environment, also powered by Modulo Kinetic.

Port des Lumières is the latest addition to Culturespaces’ growing network of digital art centers. Unlike other sites hosted in repurposed historic venues, this center was designed and installed from the ground up within a brand new building in Hamburg’s Westfield Überseequartier.

The architectural concept embraces the city’s maritime identity: with its wave-shaped facade, proximity to the harbor, and a full-scale ship’s bow reconstructed inside the main hall, the venue pays tribute to Hamburg’s seafaring heritage.

Port des Lumières offers an unforgettable experience through monumental projections, music, and state-of-the-art technology. The venue spans an exhibition area of 1,700 m², with over 3,200 m² of video projection surfaces, covering floor and walls up to 10 meters high.

The audiovisual setup includes more than 70 x Epson PU2010 projectors and 25 x Modulo Kinetic media servers, ensuring perfect synchronization and high image quality across the venue.

Achieving neat projection mapping on the monumental canvas came with its challenges. The most complex lies in the impressive prow that dominates the main hall. Measuring over 30 meters long and over 5 meters high, this architectural centerpiece is brought to life thanks to Modulo Kinetic’s semi-automatic 3D calibration, combined with the exclusive X-Map function for precise fine-tuning.

Daniel Laureano, Head of Audiovisual at Port des Lumières, explains:

We have simultaneously the easiest walls, and some of the hardest because of the ship’s prow. Mapping it was done using 3D semi-autocalibration. The thing that I like the most about the platform is how intuitive it is. For someone with a video background like me, it was easy to identify the timelines, the tasks…

From the outset, Culturespaces wanted interactivity to be part of the Hamburg venue.

“We’ve always been eager to integrate the latest technologies,” explains Grégoire Monnier, Director at Culturespaces Studio. “But our challenge has been space and audience volume. For Port des Lumières, we decided to create a dedicated room for interactivity — smaller, more contained — which allowed us to design an experience that’s both engaging and manageable.”

This approach led to the creation of the Kids’ Atelier: a 100m² immersive room with a nautical theme, directly inspired by Hamburg’s maritime heritage. Designed as a playful and creative space for children and families, the room features drawing stations and an interactive boat race.

Technically, the Kids’ Atelier is powered by 5 x Epson PU2010 projector, delivering an enveloping projection on three sides, with walls heights reaching up to 4 meters.

The room operates with a dedicated Modulo Kinetic Designer workstation, a V-Node server equipped with 6 outputs, and 2 x Hokuyo UST 2D LiDAR sensors: a 20-meter unit covering the longer wall, and a 10-meter sensor for one of the shorter sides.

Modulo Kinetic orchestrates all show elements, from media playback and interactive triggers to real-time control, ensuring a seamless and responsive experience.

The most popular feature of the Kids’ Atelier is the drawing station. Children can choose from a variety of templates featuring boats or birds, each printed with four unique QR codes.

After coloring their drawing, visitors head to the scanning station, where the entire workflow is managed by Modulo Kinetic. A compact Modulo Bridge device installed in the station creates a network bridge between the scanner and the media server, enabling instant and seamless communication between both systems.

For each drawing scanned, Modulo Kinetic detects the QR codes and instantly matches the image to the appropriate media and animation. The drawing is processed in real time, mapped as a texture onto a pre-rigged 3D object, and injected into the projection. Just a few seconds later, the uniquely colored boat or bird appears and comes to life on the wall, fully integrated into the immersive scene.

Once projected, these personal creations also become interactive. Thanks to the support of the Hokuyo LiDARs, Modulo Kinetic detects when a drawing is touched and triggers corresponding animated effects, like swirling feathers, waves, and more.

In addition to the drawings, other permanently projected elements respond to touch as well, revealing playful animations around turtles, monkeys, a volcano, and others.

Finally, an interactive boat race completes the experience through three physical ship prows installed in the room, each equipped with TCP/IP encoders. When a child presses the central button on the prow, a boat appears on the opposite wall, and the race begins.

As the prow is manipulated, Modulo Kinetic collects real-time data from the encoders to control the on-screen boat’s motion. The experience leverages Modulo Kinetic’s 3D physics engine to simulate realistic movement through waves and swell.

Visitors are invited to steer their ship around obstacles and navigate toward a treasure island, which triggers an animation upon arrival.

Daniel Laureano notes the enthusiastic response to the Kids’ Atelier: “You have people who come here and lose themselves drawing stuff, or watching their kids being happy. It’s very popular, especially on weekends.”

In less than two months since its opening, Port des Lumières and its Kids’ Atelier have received a vibrant welcome from visitors, along with several private events for various brands. In this configuration, Modulo Kinetic’s embedded live mixer makes it easy to customize shows with dedicated content, adding flexibility to an already dynamic environment.

The AV team works with the UI Designer to create custom control pages tailored for each event. “For what we do here, Modulo Kinetic is a great program,” says Daniel Laureano. “It offers a lot of different functionalities that allow us to make the most of this unique venue.”