from coworking space to decentralized creative hub for work - coworking conference milano
TRANSCRIPT
From coworking space to decentralized creative hub for work
The 6-year-story of Toolbox Coworking in Turin
Sara Bigazzi
Let’s cook some of this!
credits fmt.sight14
We first started in 2010 as a 44-workstation coworking space.
1,000 square meters (a pretty big one to start from)
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Then we grew.
Up to 6,000 square meters and more than 300 coworkers.
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
In 5 years
We became the focal point in Turin for the future of work and for
• Freelance culture • Entrepreneurship culture • Cross innovation
• Maker culture • Graphic Design culture • IoT & AI innovation
• Social Innovation • Culture innovation
Local authorities started looking at us as the main partner
to produce innovation-driven content and to get in touch with communities
they are not able to reach.
This is how we did it.
First, with a calendar of events about entrepreneurship, start-up skills, and new technologies
and partnerships with stakeholders such as universities, incubators, work communities, local authorities and non-profit organizations.
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
Then, we understood the importance of cohabitation.
Toolbox Coworking turned into a multicentered structure.
We started hosting communities in our spaces each with their own knowledge, skills, and backgrounds but willing to share and mix with the others.
1 | Fablab Torino / Officine Arduino Digital fabrication laboratory, makerspace and development hub for Arduino board.
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
1 | Fablab Torino / Officine Arduino
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
2 | Casa Jasmina The Open Source way to the connected home:
• A real-world testbed for hacks, experiments and innovative IoT and digital fabrication projects.
• A curated space for public exhibition of excellent artifacts and best practices.
• A guest-house available on Airbnb.
2 | Casa Jasmina
2 | Casa Jasmina
3 | Print Club Torino A print and graphic lab to mix new and traditional technics and experiment with digital and hand-made skills and know-how.
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
3 | Print Club Torino
Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi
4 | DigifabTURINg A research cluster focused on digital fabrication, robotic automation and applied materials research in the field of architecture, interaction design and art.
4 | DigifabTURINg
Simply put, we look like a nice cloud of fried eggs.
By adding communities to the net of people we turned into a creative hub for work,
a larger coworking ecosystem connecting people and communities. ———
Ours was a bottom-up strategy. We created the conditions for the ecosystem to grow autonomously.
——— Living together in the same shared space
makes cross-fertilization easier between coworkers and subcultures.
over 300 events a year
workshops, talks & panels one-to-one tips, meetups
special events
Fablab Torino
DigifabTURINgPrint Club Torino
Casa Jasminahosted events
coworking events
Toolbox Coworking today
300-people community of freelancers, startups, small business
110 different businesses
6,000 square meters
To make our coworking model work, we need:
• A highly diverse professional environment to foster people’s creative ability, business effectiveness, and capacity to innovate.
• A balanced mix between emotional stability and intellectual stimuli.
• A well-developed, interconnected structure with big numbers.
Our takeaways are…
The complexity of today’s world requires a multidisciplinary approach and this means:
• Overcoming the trade-off between arts and science
• Putting software and hardware under the same roof
• Making sure the ingredients can mix well
Our takeaways are…
Hope you like eggs!
toolboxcoworking.com