Strawfire is a premium dining destination within the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi, built around the visceral art of Japanese Warayaki cooking with straw and fire. Untitled Project worked hand-in-glove with Silverfox Studios and Chef Ross Shonhan to design and deliver an immersive, interactive curved wall that greets guests on arrival. The brief was clear: the experience walking in had to feel like a natural extension of the dining theatre inside.
Build an immersive arrival system where the technology is invisible and the chef's vision takes centre stage. The system needed to deliver a polished evergreen piece of content for launch day, while allowing for seamless content refreshes over time. Everything had to be managed remotely without disrupting the luxury hospitality environment.
The sparks and embers from Ross's Warayaki grill became the creative starting point. Those fiery particles — the ones guests see flying from straw as it ignites around the meat — manifest as the interactive particle effects on the curved wall. As guests walk toward the restaurant, the digital environment reacts to their movement, scattering light and embers across a seamless projection surface. The wall becomes a living threshold where the energy of the kitchen reaches out to meet you before you even step inside. Five blended ultra-short-throw projectors and hidden LiDAR sensors make it happen, but none of that is visible. It just feels like magic.
The installation launched with Strawfire's opening and led directly to an ongoing content retainer with Emirates Palace Hotel. We now provide seasonal content updates and remote technical support, keeping the digital experience fresh throughout the year. Strawfire has since won the LIV Hospitality Design Award for Fine Dining and been selected for the MICHELIN Guide Abu Dhabi.
