Media.Monks and Getty Win FWA of the Year and FWA People’s Choice Award of the Year

Honouring the best of the web, the FWA (Favourite Website Awards) has awarded the immersive experience ‘Getty Villa: Persepolis Reimagined’ with its FWA of the Year award, as well as its People’s Choice Award of the Year. The FWA of the Year is determined by a jury panel, consisting of more than 500 digital and innovation experts from over 35 countries.

The immersive website features a virtual reconstruction of the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis. Created to accompany a Getty Museum exhibition, the experience encourages visitors to explore the city’s palaces and plazas while diving deeper into the achievements and culture of ancient Persia.

The Persian Empire, despite its profound influence, is often overlooked in Western reviews of ancient history. This oversight inspired the Getty Museum to mount a sweeping exhibition of the ancient superpower, Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World. To reach an even wider global audience, a complimentary immersive WebGL experience was created, transporting visitors to a historically accurate recreation of the capital of Persia, Persepolis. By exploring palaces and plazas, visitors learn about the rich heritage of ancient Iran by seeing artefacts from the exhibition in context. Persepolis Reimagined both informs and inspires, reviving the past for a modern audience. 

“We are delighted that this innovative online and in-person experience exploring the history, beauty, and grandeur of the ancient city of Persepolis has been honoured by FWA. This recognition speaks to the deep collaborative nature of the project’s team of historians, creatives, and technologists, and to the excellence of the product they created together,“  said Carolyn Marsden-Smith, associate director for exhibitions, Getty Museum.

Lennart ter Haar, senior project manager at Media.Monks adds, “We are extremely happy that we were able to deliver on a vision that we saw very early on in the project: we wanted to push for real time webGL rendering, allowing the user to seamlessly experience the environment from many different perspectives. It took a considerable amount of technical expertise to find the sweet spot, balancing quality and performance. Winning site of the year represents a tremendous recognition of that effort.”

After more than 21 years, the platform’s FWA of the Year awards completes Media.Monks’ missing piece, with the digital company now having won all FWA’s accolades. ‘Getty Villa: Persepolis Reimagined’ is also in the running for Awwwards 2022 Best of the Web: Site of the Year, which is determined by public vote.