Imagine sitting down for dinner in Ibiza, Spain, a place better known for its sun-soaked beaches and legendary nightlife than its interiors. Except tonight, there is no sea view, no dramatic chandelier, no marble bar, no art-lined walls. In fact, there is barely any décor at all.

Then the lights change.

Suddenly, dinner is happening beneath the sea. A few courses later, you could be inside an aircraft, surrounded by an oriental garden or transported to the grandeur of Versailles. The room itself has not moved. Not a wall has shifted. Yet, somehow, you feel as though you have travelled.

This is Sublimotion, the immersive dining experience conceived by two-Michelin-starred Spanish chef Paco Roncero, holding the title of the world's most expensive dining experience. But to call it a "restaurant" misses the point entirely. It is a masterclass in spatial design.

But more than a decade later, the most interesting thing about Sublimotion is not what dinner costs. It is what the restaurant teaches us about designing a space.

What If a Restaurant Didn't Need Décor?

Traditional restaurant interior design relies heavily on physical objects to establish atmosphere: furniture, materials, artworks, lighting fixtures, textiles and architectural details.

Sublimotion approached the problem differently.

Its intimate dining room, originally designed for just 12 guests, became a 360-degree canvas that chef Paco Roncero uses the way a painter uses a blank wall, except his brush is light, sound and steam. Walls, tables and surrounding surfaces could be visually transformed in seconds, while sound, scent, temperature and lighting shifted alongside the food.

The result was something closer to theatre than conventional fine dining.

One moment could feel icy and remote. Another warm, theatrical and decadent. The same square metres acquired entirely different personalities without being physically redesigned.

Credits: EL PAÍS

Light Becomes the Architecture

This is where Sublimotion becomes especially interesting from an interior design perspective.

We often think of architecture as something permanent: walls define boundaries, furniture determines function and materials create character. Sublimotion demonstrates that our perception of a room is far more fluid.

Light can become architecture.

A darkened edge can make a wall disappear. A projected horizon can make a windowless room suddenly feel expansive. Colour can create warmth or unease, while moving imagery can give a static surface depth. Nothing structural needs to change for the emotional experience of the room to change completely.

Photo: Jürgen Bushe / Sublimotion

The Real Ingredient Is Attention

For homes, restaurants and hospitality spaces, the lesson from Sublimotion is not to install floor-to-ceiling projection mapping. It is to recognise just how much atmosphere can be created before adding another physical object.

Perhaps Sublimotion's most useful lesson has less to do with technology and more to do with attention.

Every sensory detail is considered in relation to the next. Light does not simply illuminate the food. Sound does not simply fill silence. Temperature, imagery and atmosphere are orchestrated to influence how a particular moment feels.

That idea has value far beyond a high-tech dining room in Ibiza. Good design begins by paying attention to how people actually experience a space: where their eye travels, how the light changes through the day, which corners invite them to linger and what makes them feel comfortable.

Instead of asking only, What should I put in this room?, ask, How should this room feel at different times?

A living room can feel bright and energising during the day, then intimate at night through layered lamps and warmer illumination. A piece of art can appear entirely different under focused lighting. Textured walls become more dramatic when light grazes rather than floods them.

Even shadow deserves consideration. Sometimes the most sophisticated interiors are not the ones with the most things, but the ones that understand what to reveal and what to leave in darkness.

Photo: Roberto Castaño / Sublimotion

Designing an Experience, Not Just a Room

Sublimotion has continued evolving, with its 2026 Ibiza experience bringing together haute cuisine, storytelling and newer immersive technologies. The latest experience pushes immersion further with Meta Quest 3 mixed-reality headsets, allowing physical food and digital environments to overlap, alongside a Tomorrowland collaboration that extends the theatrical journey beyond the dining table. Yet its original design proposition remains compelling.

A memorable space is not simply a collection of beautiful objects. It is a sequence of emotions.

That may be the lasting lesson behind the famous extravagant dinner in Ibiza. The restaurant with virtually no conventional décor created countless worlds inside one room, reminding us that sometimes the most powerful design element is the one we cannot touch.

Because great design does not only change how a space looks. It changes how that space makes us feel.