KAAPELI Urban Lab Traineeship 1
How to tackle the challenges of the upcoming Dance House Helsinki for the operation of the Cable Factory.
About the event
As part of the Cable Factory’s activities on participatory development and communal engagement, a series of tenant workshops took place during Autumn 2020. The idea was to bring tenants of Cable Factory together to ideate and co-create forthcoming developments regarding Cable Factory’s tenant services. The workshops were run by Kai Huotari and Raine Heikkinen, observations were made by Solita.
Due to the ongoing restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Traineeship formed an altered programme of workshops taking place at the new Konttori space.
Workshop 1
Logistics, lobby services, cleaning and safety
The workshop introduced and co-created plans for future logistics and services. The reception of current future plans among tenants was mainly neutral, concerns raised were noted to be taken into account in future design. Positive buzz and ideation were created by the utilization of new open spaces around Konttori and lobby space for shared use, pop-ups and expansions of e.g. exhibitions and events held mainly elsewhere. One important focus for future design will be the flow and access between new spaces and especially sustaining flow towards currently central area C, which will be more peripheral in the future.
Workshop 2
Tenant visibility and co-marketing
The workshop introduced Cable Factory’s new brand and visual identity. Ideation was done on slogans and co-marketing activities.
A group of 15 participants were asked to invent new slogans using the new Cable Factory “slogan generator”. The reception of the brand was positive, the opportunity for tenants to take part in co-creation was highly regarded. In another task, they reflected different kinds of audience paths. Tenants co-created various ideas for cross-selling and inspiring visitors to discover and enjoy the Cable Factory more extensively by building packages and chains of inspiration. Concerns to be taken into account regarding main changes of visibility of certain tenants and their compensation in future visibility. Some concerns were also raised on the accessibility of spaces, guides, signs and website