Camp Sunrise: Design that fosters deep connection

What are the essential components of a temporary space?

Which architectural tools can be applied in experience design?

What is the role of spatial design in forming deep connections?

With those 3 key questions in mind, I started working on the design the first ever ‘camp sunrise’.

What is camp sunrise?

None of the 73 participants of the event had any idea what to expect. The most interesting, curious and inspiring leaders of the Israeli Eco system received an invitation to an overnight retreat in the Israeli desert.

The organizers of the gathering, Michael Matias Yali Saar Guy Katsovich and Daniel Leviathan did not aim to a specific outcome for this unique experimental concept, other than bringing together brilliant minds and encourage them to connect with each other and openly explore new ideas. Starting from a journey to connect to ourselves, guided group experiences and 'unconference' sessions offered by the participants themselves.

As soon as Daniel Leviathan told me about the event, it was clear to me that this is where I belong. So, there I was, about to design an event for the first time in my professional life, with less than 3 weeks to make it all happen. I do appreciate a good challenge :)

Being the curious person that I am, I was fascinated by the opportunity to create temporary spaces that fosters deep connection. Using the knowledge we developed at The New Movement, the design followed a few principals:

1. A sense of awe for connectedness:

When it comes to psychological effects,?studies have found that awe can create a diminished sense of self (an effect known as “the small?self”), give people the sense that they have more?available time, increase feelings of connectedness, increase critical thinking and skepticism, increase positive mood, and decrease materialism.

?This is EXACTLY how I wanted the participants to feel when they arrive.

For that purpose, two incredible big scale art pieces by the artistic duo Lili X Faluja was brought to Selina . The location of the 6-meters-high art pieces was carefully selected in relation to the scale of the space, using the golden ratio formula for maximizing the sense of harmony.

(Don’t worry, we did not burn it at the end of the event)

2.?Dynamic design: evolving and adapting the design during the event

The event had 3 main phases:

- Group experiences: we created a pop up gathering space for the entire group of 73 participants.

- Unconference sessions – various sizes of gathering at 5 locations simultaneously

- Magical night fair under the stars, with stands offering various sensorial experiences.

As the event progressed from one phase to another, the design kept transforming with it, creating a sense of wonder for the participants who were surprised to see the compound evolution during the 30-hour event.

3.?Read my lips: light design to highlight faces in a ‘light reserve’

Located in a nature reserve at the heart of the Israeli desert, Selina Ramon is obliged to follow strict environmental protection guidelines. One of the guidelines is restricting the amount of artificial light that is being used in order to prevent light pollution.

So, the design used most of the light “allowance” to highlight people’s faces:

Mirroring is something we do with people we like or are interested in- we copy their body language, speech, facial expression and more.?Mirroring facial expressions are a common phenomenon in face-to-face interactions, and it is known as a non-verbal way to show empathy. We placed candles as centerpieces at the dinner tables, and created frames of soft fairy lights over each stand during the night fair, to amplifying the non-verbal communication and sense of connectedness.

Plus, hiding the wifi password in a no-cellular-reception zone helped too ??

I would like to thank again to Michael Matias , Yali Saar , Guy Katsovich and Daniel Leviathan for the trusting me with the design and for the invitation to participate in this beautiful gathering. It feels like a beginning of something extraordinary, yet perfectly simple at the same time.

Big THANK YOU to the event partners: Selina , 德勤 catalyst, Secret Chord Ventures and Pearl Cohen .

To the amazing team of Selina Saray Harel , Adi Davis Dor Ben Haim and Elazar Landau. You guys rock! I'm looking forward to creating epic experiences together again in the future.

The night fair and experiences leaders: Dor Firuzmand of Midas, Nimrod Arnin , Avigail Amster, Yudan maivar for the music, Narkis Alon and Yaniv Charlap for holding space at the tea house, the experiences you've created made this event unforgettable!

?Special thank you and gratitude to Dana Laor and her amazing team who co-created with me, built the temporary structure in an impossible timeline and added her magic touch to the design details.

I can go on and on about the presence of fractals in the space, the light temperature and natural materials, but I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Photos by the talented Carlie sings photography and Efi Yosefi.

Until the next time... :)