8th May 2017

Hub Culture x Design Pavilion at Times Square New York

Times Square is home to the newest Hub Culture experience, featuring mobile architecture as part of NYCxDesign with a broadcast studio, meeting lounge, virtual reality, Ven and Zeke.ai integrations.

The installation is positioned at the south entrance to Times Square at 42nd Street and Broadway and runs from 10am - 10pm, 3-24 May 2017. Hub Culture x Design Pavilion includes a range of services to the city and the design community, anchored by member services for visitors.

The experience is centered on new experiments in mobile design architecture presented as the 2017 Hub Culture Concept Collection. The Collection is composed of mobile design Units: a virtual reality studio, a creative lounge studio and a new form of kiosk, all made with circular economy and cradle-to-cradle initiatives in mind.

Created for Hub Culture Design Studio by Brady Johnson with Canvas Craft Inc. and Lothian Salvage, the units demonstrate repurposed materials integrated to modified 20ft shipping containers and a custom built aluminum and polycarbonate structure for the kiosk. The uniform size of the containers lends toward easy transport, but with major modifications including a drop down side panel, winches, sliding doors, and reclaimed flooring and interiors - even reclaimed tin from a barn in northern Iowa.

Their development was made possible through a partnership with Muse, one of Bermuda's leading restaurant and hospitality groups under invitation from the Times Square Alliance and Design Pavilion with NYCxDesign, led by Ilene Shaw, founder of ICFF.

Following their stay in Times Square NYC, the units will find a second mission in Bermuda at the Hub Culture Innovation Campus and Beach Club at Ariel Sands, serving as hospitality suites and hotel rooms for visiting members this summer. The 2017 Concept Collection features Imagination Partners SABIC, McDonough Innovation, Antonio Pio Saracino and Angel Wing Airways, all of which contributed time, materials, advice and insight into the development of the spaces.

The Hub at Times Square includes custom events, broadcast moments and daily Facebook Live updates with three virtual reality experiences. The virtual reality service is managed by Jump Into the Light, an incubator style provider of top-notch virtual reality experiences with two retail locations in New York. It features an immersive visit to the Hub Culture Innovation Campus in Bermuda, the Google Tilt Brush creative suite, and a series of vivid scenes around New York with a helicopter tour over the city, penthouse apartments and an inception-esque view of Times Square itself from GAROU.

The Hub Culture virtual reality Campus features integrations from Zeke.ai and offers the first Ven payment services in an immersive environment, along with a tour of the Campus property, virtual tennis, swimming and messaging. This and other technologies are being developed in consulation with Digital Raign, DeathlessVR, Cyberlab9, GAROU and other partners.

A series of events at Hub Culture x Design Pavilion are set to lay the groundwork for continued capacity in Times Square, ranging from planned Pavilion designs to virtual services and integrations. They can be accessed via the Hub Culture app.