Superbloom AR
- Brand
- Tower Of London
- Year
- 2022
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Preloaded
Objective
Historic Royal Palaces wanted to open up Superbloom, the flower display planted across the Tower of London's moat for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, to people who couldn't visit the site in person. The free AR app let anyone bring the same blooms into their own home or garden, extending the reach of a site-specific summer spectacle beyond the Tower walls. A secondary aim was awareness and wellbeing: encouraging people to green their own surroundings and giving them a moment of calm during a busy season.
Solution
The player opens the app's camera and scatters seeds onto their own floor, garden, or street, then watches the same flowers growing in the Tower's moat sprout around them in real time, with stems, buds, and blooms unfolding on the same schedule and the same 29 plant species as the real display. They walk around their patch, lean the camera in for close-ups, and spot bees and butterflies as they arrive, tapping each one to log it and read a short card about the species. Everything they find is saved to a personal collection, while a soundtrack composed for Superbloom plays throughout. The bloom moves through three waves over the summer, so players who return later find new flowers and new pollinators waiting, and each visit can end with a photo or video of the scene to share.
- 1
The player installs the free "Tower Superbloom AR" app, published by Historic Royal Palaces, and points the phone's camera at the surrounding space so it can map real floors, yards, and objects.
- 2
The player sows virtual seeds into that real environment, starting a personal version of the Tower of London's Superbloom moat garden at home or outside.
- 3
The seeds grow in stages — stem, leaves, buds, flowers — and the flowerbed keeps spreading as the player moves, wrapping around real furniture and objects; the swaying plants encourage the player to walk around, crouch, and view the garden from different angles.
- 4
Bees and butterflies arrive and settle on specific plants; the player brings the camera close to a flower or insect to identify it and unlock a card describing that species and its behavior.
- 5
Every identified plant and pollinator is added to a personal collection that grows as the player finds more species.
- 6
A meditative soundscape, composed by Erland Cooper for the real Superbloom installation, plays throughout the experience.
- 7
Players photograph or film their garden and share it on social media.
- 8
Returning weeks later, the player finds a different garden: the bloom unfolds in three waves, each with its own species and pollinators synced to the real moat at the Tower, giving a reason to come back across the summer.
