The Business Case for Media Architecture - Modelling Project Benefits to Justify Investment.

A growing portfolio of global media architecture projects and sustained research interest in the domain suggest that the discipline is here to stay. With practical knowledge becoming easily accessible to clients, architects and urban planners, we notice a shift from traditional advertising screens to integrated context-aware installations. The challenge now becomes to understand investment return of media architecture in order to ensure ongoing support by clients and funders. In this paper we study The Digital Bricks, a 208 megapixel media façade integrated within a university building. We describe the project vision, engagement strategy and design outcome, and analyse in detail the business case for the project. We share considerations to support development of business cases for media architecture projects that favour engagement, cultural and innovation capacity over financial returns. As the discipline matures, our insights will help in the endeavour to convince clients to invest in media architecture that inspires and engages audiences.