Airbus Experience Center
How might we help a European brand show their commitment to the USA in a memorable way?
With a BIG IDEA.
Client: Airbus
Agency: Hornall Anderson
Project Type: Spatial Design & Environmental Branding
Overview:
The Airbus experience center serves as an innovative showcase-plus-workspace and flagship destination for the brand in the USA. Hosting a range of visitor types, the center invites guests into a greater understanding of Airbus Group's role in shaping the future of aerospace. I was a primary lead on the project from the initial pitch through content development and final implementation.
Responsibilities:
Pitch, proposals and business development
Overall project owner, 3D-design lead, prototyping
Creative concept ideation and experience strategy
Executive and core-team presentations
Resourcing and project management
Coordination with architects and vendor agencies
The sky connects us all.
Experience strategy and takeaways
The key takeaways for visitors were defined, and an abstracted flow map enables the host to tailor the focus for visitors
If you want to understand Airbus, look up. The dream of flight echoes through human history. Icarus. DaVinci. The Montgolfier brothers, and the Wrights. As a result of their collective yearning, today, we fly. And the universal passion to go further and higher hasn’t diminished since. Our connection to the skies has become an essential part of how we exist as people–how we connect with the world, how we connect economies and cultures, how we connect with those we love.
The sky is boundless, and the boundaries to be pushed equally so. We don’t fly because we can; we fly because we must. In the air above, we find in each other the united human pursuit of the future. Unlimited, open, infinite possibility–a sky that connects us all.
Establishing the experience narrative
Experience Zones & Strategy
Visitor flow options were mapped alongside office spaces with the architects in the 24K s.f. newly built center
Upon arrival, a dynamic digital oculus overhead offers a bird's eye view of the earth with simulated flight paths and data points.
From here, one of three experience paths is chosen, one of which includes the synchronized wing-doors seen in the background.
A sweeping 30-foot wall serves as a canvas for the host and visitors to intuitively explore featured stories. A rotating globe interface in the touchscreen table allows a multitude of project stories and data visualizations to be projected, and a hidden section of the wall magically opens onto the next space at the conclusion
To bring Airbus products to life, visitors encounter a 40-foot-long Fleet Wall, with projected imagery and interactive 3D models that animate across the sculpted and shaped surface. Visitors become much more immersed in the breadth of the product offering.
Entering the innovation gallery through a moving wall in the briefing space.
This flexible gallery space celebrates the tireless pursuit of Airbus Group. A mix of both analog and digital installations provides a museum-like environment that can change over time.
A mixture of cutting edge, new technologies are interspersed with historical precedent innovations across all divisions of the enterprise.
Curated exhibits and a modular display system are built over a raised flooring system to enable easy changeouts.
Traveling the length of the center, the Skywalk Corridor provides glimpses of the DC area and a gallery setting to showcase Airbus' history of looking forward.
Ten windows line the ceiling depicting motion graphics with daytime Contrail views of flight patterns and Galaxy mode at night with orbiting satellites.
The large collaboration center area opens onto the Innovation Gallery, where guests and visitors can get a glimpse or partner on future breakthroughs.
At the culmination of the Skywalk Corridor, a meeting space provides views of the capitol and a premium setting.
Adjacent office areas provide additional space for government relations personnel as well as hosting visitors from other locations or partner organizations.