AROCALYPSE
In AROCALYPSE (AR + Apocalypse), Oleh Ivashko envisions a future in which society is fully reliant on Augmented Reality. The project imagines towering vertical cities (Megatowers) conceived to exist only through digital overlays. Using a short film as a tool for speculative urban storytelling, the narrative takes a pivotal turn: the digital layer collapses, revealing a built environment never intended to function without augmentation.
Combining film, 3D modelling, computational design, scenario testing, and interactive media, AROCALYPSE immerses viewers in a world suspended between technological optimism and post-digital ruin. The project proposes an adaptive reuse design response, transforming the Megatowers into resilient, inhabitable spaces to reinstate urban life, reversing the full digital takeover into new urban typologies. Through this approach, a unique design challenge is framed, and a bespoke response is tested as a critical spatial design exercise.
Rooted in [CPU]Ai’s complex future cities framing, the project raises timely questions about future trajectories: Are we designing for reality, or creating illusion? Can we reclaim agency in a future dominated by immersive technologies? How do we design and plan for upcoming disruption as future designers?
