Project owner: City of Helsinki, Economic development
Designer: Diagonal Mental Structure Oy
Design funding: EUR 40,000
The City of Helsinki faces increasing demand for easily accessible office, group work and conference facilities. At the same time, some of the facilities owned by the city are occasionally vacant.
This project aims to develop mobile pop-up workspaces in empty facilities owned by the city. The goal is to create a flexible and adaptable concept which is easy to assemble and disassemble. The pilot will be developed together with the economic development service and new entrepreneurs, but in the future the concept can be implemented in other city units, too. The project will also consider the city’s brand, quality of services and the functional content of the concept: how can we come up with creative encounters, new networks and businesses?
The designers will observe and interview entrepreneurs, and a round table will discuss co-working spaces and the change in knowledge work. Workshops in the spring will brainstorm space solutions, service concepts, roles and the brand of facilities. The project will also provide tools and a model for the reproduction of the concept. Entrepreneurs and city residents will be invited to joint development. Various service design methods will be utilised in a diverse manner in development.
Diagonal is a multi-disciplinary design office based in Helsinki whose core competence lies in creating customer understanding, design which involves users and facility design which improves communication between individuals. Diagonal develops services and service environments for its customers using service design methods, and also provides facilities and furnishings to support customer experiences. During the last year, the office has been involved in design projects involving Helsingin Energia, DNA, ABB, Aitokauppa and the University of Helsinki library.
The task of the City of Helsinki’s Economic Development unit is to create good operating conditions for companies in the area. It aims to promote entrepreneurship, for example, and develop competitive ability and economic life in the region.
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