Photo Tanja Korvenmaa.
Hub Helsinki kicked off last year. Hub Helsinki organized a World Design Capital 2012 brainstorming day in Helsinki at the end of May. During Helsinki Design Week, it is exploring urban gardens and communal construction. What Hub Helsinki?
The operating models of businesses in creative fields have renewed and continue to do so very rapidly. People are working on their own in a variety of networks. It’s easy to pick the correct people with the right kind of expertise for the project or venture at hand.
This wide-spreading operating model is the basis for Hub Helsinki, who are developing urban culture in all of its forms. Part of an international network of hubs, the cooperative consists of individual experts of various fields working separately. They’re brought together by a common interest in developing the city and applying new operating models.
The Hub movement was started in London in 2005, and hubs have been popping up for the last couple of years. There are hubs at least in Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Helsinki, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Stockholm, Riga, Berlin, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Hub Helsinki was founded in 2009.
Currently Hub Helsinki has over 200 active members. Their facebook group includes almost 700 people interested and even partaking in their activities. All in all, there are over 5 500 hubbers worldwide.
Across boundaries
“What makes Hub special is that it has no boundaries,” says Hub Helsinki CEO ANNE RAUDASKOSKI. “The whole Hub model is based on the idea of representing as many professional fields as possible. Brainstorming and innovating are easiest done in a group with maximal diversity. Hubbers are connected by an interest in communal issues and innovations.”
“Young people are very receptive to a new culture based on open communality, but we’re looking to gather senior citizens as well. The optimal scenario would have people with time and experience doing a project with younger people,” Raudaskoski hints.
“The operational model of a Hub depends on the city it’s in. In Tampere, the Hub is offering working space, while in Helsinki we facilitate various projects,” continues SAMI OINONEN, the chairman of the Hub Helsinki board.
Hub Helsinki is partnering among others with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. Projects are also implemented in collaboration with citizen organizations such as Dodo or Anna hyvän kiertää (‘Pay it forward’), who are focusing on children’s well-being.
Hub Helsinki is also offering working space at their facilities on Aleksanterinkatu. “The spaces are open to anyone regardless of where they’re from,” Oinonen states.
Communal entrepreneurship
In addition to the WDC 2012 brainstorming day in May, Hub Helsinki has organized multiple workshops on various topics. The Hub has been used for everything from guerrilla marketing for Call a Granny Day to social media training and developing commutational biking.
During Helsinki Design Week, Hub Helsinki is organizing the Windowfarms Finland Workshop, developing, yes, window farms, as well as the Urban Cohousing Workshop, which will continue with the unofficial Unsauna conference in the Arla sauna. In addition to these, the Hub premises will see an exhibition called The 3 Inch Canvas for Art, which is putting art onto mobile phone screens.
“Basically anyone can bring an issue or a problem to the Hub for solving,” Raudaskoski says. “The only criteria is that it should have a social or communal aspect.”
Hub activity is thematically connected with communal entrepreneurship, which aims to make changes in society through fast action. As a cooperative, the Hub’s business model is simple. People buy memberships and networking packages, and membership fee-like payments grant you access to Hub Helsinki’s events. Organizing events and running projects also bring in revenue.
“We’re operating in the cross-section of the public, private and third sectors. We organize a lot of events and coordinate transitional projects,” Sami Oinonen says.
“Different parties, like Sitra, the World Design Capital 2012 organization or the ministries might have a problem that they want solved. The Hub can take responsibility for seeing the project through,” he explains. “The Ministry of the Environment may want to find out how the production and distribution of local food in nearby cities should be organized. In this case, we’d gather a wide group of people of varying expertise and think of a solution.”
So far, the projects have been local, but international collaboration between thematically and geographically close Hubs is possible.
“A common theme with Stockholm would be food. And if you’re thinking of means of developing Helsinki’s cycling possibilities, you should contact Amsterdam’s Hub, who are bound to have a lot of information and experience in urban biking.” †
Hub Helsinki, Aleksanterinkatu 16−18, Helsinki. www.hubhelsinki.fi
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Text Heini Lehtinen Photo Tanja Korvenmaa
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