The Polar Vault container at night, lit with giant illuminated ornaments as visitors line up outside.

Case study · Immersive photobooth · Covent Garden Market

The Polar Vault

A shipping container, a snow globe, and a queue that runs itself.

The Polar Vault transforms a standard shipping container into a glowing, interactive winter wonderland in the middle of a downtown market square. Touch-responsive walls, real-time visuals built with Three.js, and a “shake to snow” mechanic driven by the visitor’s own phone turn a photobooth into something closer to a small weather system you can stand inside.

The queue runs itself. Visitors join from their phone, watch their place in line, and step in when it’s their turn — which meant a busy market night never turned into a bottleneck, and no staff member spent the evening managing a lineup.

How it works

  1. Join from the sidewalk

    Visitors open the experience on their own phone and take a place in the queue — no attendant, no line-up sheet.

  2. Step into the vault

    Inside the container, projection wraps the walls and the space becomes a snow globe you are standing in.

  3. Shake to snow

    Motion from the phone drives the scene — shake it and the snow falls — then the photo is yours to keep.

Inside the container, a visitor holds a phone showing the queue screen while a snow globe scene is projected on the wall.The lit container and ornament installation seen from the market square.

Credits

  • Venue — Covent Garden Market, London, Ontario

Next project: Blue Noise →

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