OpenIDEO - How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline? - Inspiration - Turn vacant buildings into collaborative havens for creative entrepreneurs ("hackspaces")

The Challenge

1373 followers

How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline?

Inspiration 894 inspirations

Concepting 329 concepts

Applause 329 final concepts

Refinement 20 final concepts

Evaluation 20 final concepts

Winning Concepts Announced!

Realisation Ongoing

Congratulationsto all our contributors!

Mission #1

Explore Vibrancy

Share your definition of what vibrancy looks like where you live. Find out more...

Mission #2

Share Stories

Tell us about the cities and communities you know are currently struggling or in the process of revitalising.

Mission #3

Get Active

Take some time to get active and explore your own community – then report back what you learned. Find out more...

Mission #4

Collect Insights

Interview someone living in a struggling city or region to learn more. Find out more...

Mission #5

Surprise Us

Got an Inspiration that doesn't fit the other Missions? Find out more...

terms and conditions

Learn more

The Challenge Brief

Intro Video by Steelcase

Challenge FAQ

Supporting Resources Forum

Brainstorm in a Box

Concepting Tips

Refining the Top 20

Announcing our Winning Concepts

Activity Feed

previous

586 of 894 inspirations

next

Inspiration
back to list

Mission #1 Explore Vibrancy Find out more...

Turn vacant buildings into collaborative havens for creative entrepreneurs ("hackspaces")

Take vacant buildings and make them entrepreneurial hot spots by allowing creatives to collaborate on problems focusing on their local community. Possibly have it double as a tech learning center as well to promote creative ideation.

the-greenhouse-at-innovation-park-at-the-university-of-notre-dame

The ability to collaborate is what makes the Greenhouse vibrant. As a daily occupant, I know how useful it is to have others around me with expertise in areas different from mine. Ideation is through the roof in there because we all have similar mindsets focused on the thought "How can I solve this problem?".

These "hackspaces" are the future of entrepreneurship. Collaboration is King. Think Andy Warhol's Factory, but for innovation. By using the empty spaces throughout Detroit and other struggling places as low-cost (as in low operation fees) hackspaces, cities can provide their creatives and entrepreneurs with the space they need to get their ideas started.

The space wouldn't need to provide much more than desks, tables, whiteboards, and internet connections. Ideation is the name of the game. Promoting innovative problem solving by the cities inhabitants for local issues is the best way to reinvest in the community. These buildings should be the local hangouts for creatives, encouraging them to just spend time there doing what they love to do, whether it be prototyping, coding, ideating, etc.

Additionally, local experts can volunteer to give small lectures or seminars to teach their skills to others. Accumulating lots of knowledge in lots of different areas is the best avenue to innovation. These lectures would aim at giving people crash courses in different subjects, giving everyone a common knowledge base, making collaboration even easier. For example, people with older skill sets associated with manufacturing work (which used to be a big industry in Detroit), such as fabricating, can learn about what people with ideas in newer high tech subjects, such as smartphone accessory prototyping, are doing and can help them out with the knowledge they have.

THEN WE ALL WIN!!!!! YAYYYYYYYY

Mission #1 Explore Vibrancy Find out more...

Comments

Join the conversation and post a comment.

Arjan Tupan

delete comment

November 19, 2011, 04:49PM

These type of initiatives are really valuable. Even if it starts with simple co-working spaces. There's a great concept in this one.

0 Applaud Report this comment

Paul Reader's reply to Arjan Tupan's comment

Paul Reader

delete comment

December 05, 2011, 11:46AM

I agree Arjan - great work Tyler - looking forward to seeing this built upon.

0 Applaud Report this comment

Meena Kadri

delete comment

November 17, 2011, 09:48PM

Fab inspiration, Tyler! Here's a quick tip: we're starting to see a couple of related inspirations around vacant buidings and you might want to connect them to your post using the Build Upon feature. This helps us all join the dots between related posts and will show up on your Collaboration Map for this post. Plus you'll get more DQ points!. Hit the Update button on the right of your post, then scroll down to Build Upon. Search terms like 'vacant', 'space', etc and drag anything relevant over to your Build Upon field. Keep up the great work!

0 Applaud Report this comment