Airbnb Haus

CLIENT

CIVIC Entertainment, Airbnb

SERVICES

Activation | Fabrication

TYPOLOGY

Film Festival, Branded Space

LOCATION | STATUS

Park City, Utah | Completed 2017

local characters live here

At the core of every good film, you’ll find a cast of characters who make the story leap off the screen. Whether it’s the legendary hero or the quirky, unforgettable sidekick, these personalities give the narrative depth, reality, and maybe even a touch of eccentricity. They captivate us, draw us into their world, and make our own lives a bit richer for the time spent in their company.

The same holds true for the places we live. Our neighborhoods have their own cast of characters—the street performer with the crooked grin, the mailman who’s practically a dog whisperer, or the bartender who knows every regular’s name, drink order, and deepest secrets. They’re the ones who don’t just make us feel at home—they make place we live worth talking about, worth remembering. This local cast of characters not only make us feel at home, they make our stories of home worth sharing.

programmatic components

programmatic passive activities

At WOW Atelier, we craft activations spaces that don’t just ask you to move through them—they invite you to think, reflect, and engage on a deeper, mental level. It’s about creating those quiet, yet critical moments where a person connects with the “big idea,” not through physical action, but through thought. These passive programmatic activities provide that bridge, turning the space into a canvas for mental exploration.

Take Sundance Film Festival 2016, for instance, where Adobe presented Editing Insights: Hail, Caesar! by the Coen Brothers—a session that encouraged filmmakers to look deeper into the craft, not by doing, but by thinking. Similarly, Airbnb hosted NYT Op-Docs, Moth Slam, and StoryCorps events, where stories weren’t just heard; they were felt, internalized, and reflected upon.

The Coen brothers: Editing Insights: Hail Cesar and DeadPool

New York Times Op Docs

The Moth Storytelling

Story Corps

programmatic framework

the space

These are the moments we aim to weave into the physical fabric of the space, offering opportunities to pause, engage with ideas, and mentally interact with the space in ways that leave a lasting impression.
[read more]When the stage is used for the Moth storytelling, a Adobe insights lecture, and a seating vignette to sip on LaBaraba coffee to take a break from the cold, all within hours of each activity. The framework is the physically designed space that is the outcome of all the needs within the space. In reality, its when design does as it should, become the glue that binds all thing together seamlessly in support of the BIG idea.[/read]

touch points

local murmurs

Advice + Anecdotes From a Local Character

Brendan Dawes is a technologist and artist from London, who will create an installation made of 12 multicolored printers that will print out receipts with pre-populated and real-time content over the course of the week.

Read more

adobe pillow talk

Dreams of a Local Character

Take the opportunity to dream a little dream. Where do you find yourself travelling to, what adventures and wonders cradle you to sleep? Take a photo, illustrate your dreamworld, and share!

In partnership with Adobe, we will have a filmmaker interview series led by a diverse and vibrant cast of local characters while in bed, along with a consumer activation which allows our guests to get in bed and share their stories for an amazing social output.

the colorful character

Color in the Local Character

We all have different relationships to our neighborhoods and ideas around the people and places that make it special. To bring this to life in a fun engaging way, we create an interactive station allowing guests to collaborate on an illustrated neighborhood.

Amos Goldbaum is an artist specializing in freehand line drawings. He started selling his drawings on the street and gained a following for his creative works to include prints and t shirts. He credits his grandfather and mother as inspiration and has been featured in McSweeney’s and Cool Hunting.

shared studio’s ‘portal’ project

Shared Studios created a unique interactive experience, allowing guests to enter a private space and video chat with like-minded people from cuba, mexico, and iran. as the pop-up was hosted by airbnb, content from their expansive community was taken into account as well. ‘the cast of local characters’ took stories sourced from airbnb’s blog and transformed them into a work of art — thanks no doubt to their expert in-house design team.

a bar bar & a coffee bar

La Barba Coffee is a Salt Lake City-centric coffee roaster in a city not known nationally for coffee or elevated culture. La Barba Coffee started on a barbecue grill in a local Rose Park backyard and made some of its first sales at the local Downtown Farmers Market. La Barba now operates three coffee shops and wholesales to 100+ restaurants, markets, coffee shops and bakeries in Salt Lake City, Park City and Ogden giving Salt Lake City another great piece in the puzzle of its burgeoning food scene and culture.

what people are saying

DESIGNBOOM

WINTER 2016

AIRBNB

2016

studio team

WOW atelier

Gregory Walker

Chimso Onwuegbu

John Burdick

collaborators

CIVIC Entertainment Jennifer Boardman, Jamie Masters, William Quinby, Nick Weaver, Rustin Olson, Andrew Yoo.

Airbnb Christian Rongavilla

TMP Trevor Muhler

Brandon Dawes

Adobe Pillow Talk

Shared Studios

La Barba Coffee

The Moth | The art and craft of storytelling

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