While managing The FuseBox innovation hub at Wired Sussex, I created a virtual office environment template using Mozilla Hubs’ Spoke editor. The template was designed as a practical space — somewhere teams could meet, demonstrate technology, and collaborate remotely using nothing more than a web browser.
The Template
The FuseBox Office Space was built in Spoke, Mozilla Hubs’ visual editor for creating 3D environments. It replicated the feel of a working office environment without requiring users to download anything or own VR hardware — the browser-first approach that made Mozilla Hubs accessible to anyone. The template was designed to be reusable and adaptable, so other organisations could deploy it as a starting point for their own virtual workspaces.
Academic Adoption
The most unexpected outcome was the template’s adoption by academic researchers. The “FuseBox Office space by Chris Chowen” template was used in a study published on ResearchGate — a usability evaluation of Virtual Reality training in Library and Information Science education. Researchers used the environment as the basis for VR training scenarios, evaluating how students navigated and interacted within virtual spaces designed for crisis management training.
What This Showed
Being cited in academic research reframed what I’d built. What started as a practical tool for a coworking space became evidence in a study about VR’s potential in education. It demonstrated that well-designed, accessible VR environments have downstream value beyond their original purpose — particularly when they lower the barrier to entry for researchers who need virtual spaces but don’t have the resources to build them from scratch.