Caution Cinema

Working in conjunction with a major UK port operator, Scott Whitby Studio has designed and launched Caution Cinema, a fully immersive, multi-sensory, pop-up cinema experience that forms part of a health and safety campaign known as ‘Beyond Zero’.

This long-term endeavour promotes a culture of behaviour-based safety practices where employees make safety a priority all day, every day. Caution Cinema was envisioned as a space to deliver vital safety information with instructional videos to port employees up and down the country.

Scott Whitby Studio were challenged to create a space that would capture and engage the full attention of participants while competing with the noise and hectic environment of Britain’s busy ports. Scott Whitby Studio’s solution was to take the natural dock environment and introduce a very familiar object but to make it appear startlingly alien.

The team took an ordinary shipping container and converted it into a dark and mysterious realm which challenged expectations. All internal surfaces are clad with what appears to be sharply pointed pyramids but these are actually made of resilient but soft acoustic foam which can be walked on and sat on whilst creating an anechoic (soundless) chamber. With the sounds of the outside world being absorbed by over one thousand colourful pyramids, all attention is focussed on the video presentation without external distractions.

Upon entering Caution Cinema, attendees find themselves confronted with a maze-like path leading into the container. As well as blocking out all external light and sound for the cinema, the disorientating, winding route encourages visitors to become acutely aware of their surroundings. Using this multi-sensory experience, visitors are forced to take extra care and to proceed with caution - as promoted by the safety campaign. It is hoped that the memory of this multi-sensory experience and intervention will be embed in the user’s memory for a long time to come.

Alex Scott-Whitby, Director of ScottWhitbyStudio commented ‘We are very proud to have been invited to work on this innovative project, hopefully our design will go on to help save lives and make a real difference to the world of dockside safety, and the safety of all the people who work on or by our countries industrial waterside.’

Scott Whitby studio
Alex Scott-Whitby, Paulina Huukari, Jaahid Ahmed, Cherng-Min Teong, Osman Marfo-Gyasi