MINI HUB RETHINKS THE FUTURE OF CITIES

We’re becoming increasingly aware of the need to improve our habits for the sake of our environment. Nonetheless, our cities are often far from making these improvements. For this reason, Miniand Enorme Studio, a young design firm specialising in the public space and participative dynamics, have created an original installation. It will be a creative space situated in the plaza Santa María Soledad Torres Acosta in Madrid, titled the MINI Hub. For over a year, MINI has been cultivating this hub, and now it is finally opening itself up to the outside world, with a collaborated installation.

The space will be verdant with designers who will meet and rethink new ways of creating a city. The city furniture workshop, Bench a Day, will discuss the development of new ideas for urban benches and interactive keynote talks will open up new dialogues on urban stages. There will be new public space laboratories and debates on the future of cities. All of these activities have been curated around urban design. They will be collaborative, trans-disciplinary and inter-generational.

MINI Hub, the endeavour by MINI and Enorme Studio, is framed within its objective of improving urban life, contributing to a rational use of resources and maximising the motto “creative use of space” that is inherent to the brand’s DNA. This moving, green structure, Montaña en la Luna, (mountain on the moon) represents an opportunity to experiment based on the idea of a designer office and portable architecture. 

In addition to being a meeting point for design and the city, the installation concerns itself with the use of renewable energies. It features USB charging points and reading points lit by solar energy, as well as the possibility to charge devices with kinetic energy, generated by movement. This new habitable and efficient equipment seeks to work on the most pressing challenges of daily life.

As citizens it is urgent that we contribute and start collectively rethinking new, collective visions for our cities. If we do, we can cohesively regenerate our urban landscapes.