The Flourmill Reconverting a warehouse into a collaborative workspace to reinvent the way we make cities
The challenge
Processes and spaces in which cities are imagined, developed, built and regenerated are all too often standardized, resulting in the same limits and challenges. A property developer decides to create a workspace to attract professionals working disruptively in this field, to increase their innovation potential through collaboration and visibility.
The innovation
A 30 000 square feet warehouse in an eco-district is dedicated to the collaborative workspace. Wow!Labs creates the strategic design and the spatial design for the property developer who will run the project.
How can a corporate company lead a disruptive project in its own sector? How far will corporate culture hinder the agility of a start-up project it incubates, and how far will it accelerate it? How can relations with the public sector, the third sector and civil society best be managed around such a project? How much of the company needs to be "in" on an innovative project carried by the company? How are the learnings generated from creating an innovative project best re-injected into the company, and by whom? How big is the risk of "losing" some of the staff to the innovative culture it will discover through the start-up project? "Fail early, fail often": can this entrepreneurship mantra be applied in practice within an established company, and at what risk?
Sustainable architecture
How far can ecology be "retrofitted" into a project? How can ecology actively integrate a project that follows a standardized building or renovation process? Why is ecology harder to apply on a larger scale? Is it ever too early to think about ecology in developing a project? Can emerging ecological materials be applied to large-scale projects? Can a space ever be too innovative for its users? How far would a conventional building developer accept to go for an innovative space?
