We are glad to see a growing number of projects across Europe – from the one in Budapest, to ZAM in Erlangen where we currently are, or Center Rog in Ljubljana – which are in line with what we have been envisaging for more than 8 years for the former administrative building of the Sljeme factory in Sesvete: at the time as the innovative HUB_S, on the initiative of the Green and Blue Sesvete association and with research by the University of Zagreb | Faculty of Architecture, and now under the name Innovative Community Centre HUB-S 1.0 as a new attempt to move things forward.
We are extremely glad that our thinking is being confirmed, that cities recognise projects like these which encourage spontaneous innovation coming from individuals and groups, in an open and inclusive environment, for the benefit not only of that community but of a wider one, without the burden of having to grow into a startup or a business project (which is exactly what happens in environments like these). FabLab Hrvatska, as one of the New European Bauhaus Lab partners, is working on the idea of Creating a network of local ecosystems for STEAM as a driver of development, with the support of the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, developing mechanisms for the development of similar spaces across Croatia and turning abandoned cultural heritage into centres of innovation, drawing on the experience of the Centrinno EU Project.