U.lab - It's about you by U.lab

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about you

DAB Doc [14] First edition published in 2011 by DAB Documents Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Tel: +61 2 9514 2000 http://www.dab.uts.edu.au ISBN: 978-0-9808622-3-2 Edited by: Wayne Brookes Melissa Edwards Joanne Jakovich Julie Jupp Nathan Kirchner Natalia Nikolova Jochen Schweitzer Design: Joanne Jakovich Printer: Peachy Print All articles and images are released under the Creative Commons Liscenses Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivitives (CC BY-NC-ND) at the discretion of the author. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions. Printed and bound in Australia. UTS CRICOS Provider code: 00099F u.labâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BikeTank is supported by City of Sydney.

a n e m e rging interdisciplin ar y f r a mework for inno vation pr o j ec ts at uts

Acknowledgements Preface Introduction

u.lab The u.lab Philosophy [16] u.lab Beginnings [19] Growing the u.lab Concept [22] Continual Learning [23] u.lab: An Innovation Hub [23] On the Importance of Space [26] Your Thoughts on u.lab [30]

1. creative minds A Pilot... [56] What we Learned So Far [74] We aim to Keep Pushing Boundaries Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Next? [79]

2. biketank The BikeTank 5x5 [88] The Future of BikeTank [89] BikeTanks #1 to #9 [90] BikeTank Community [108]

3. entrepreneurship lab Introduction [119] QuickFox [125] Thrive [143] Project S2S [161] Live Hive [179] Afterword [201] Contact Us [207]

[78]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

u.lab is a framework for people, and in particular you. In reaching and exploring across boundaries we gather collaborations that share distributed framework for innovation that is based on relationships. thanks to the inspiration, support and collaboration from friends, supporters and colleagues: Manjula and Ken Waldron, Kees Dorst, Roy Green, Hael Kobayashi, Attila Brungs, Shirley Alexander, Anthony Burke, Christine Burton, Lawrence Wallen, Mark Tirpak, Ricardo Altimira, Ximena MuĂąoz, Gareth Johnston, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, Ben Hewett, David Gravina, Cenk Baban, Ashlee Stocks, Camilla Schippa, Omar Khalifa, Alex Cheek, Gauri Bhalla, Cassandra Wilkinson, Steven Pozel, Danielle Robson, Jessica Waal, Mal Booth, Michelle Williams, Grahame Dickson, Jesper Gulddal, Brent Stanzel and our talented photographers Michael Ford, Nora Hyasat, Jessica Hartany, Marty Renwick and Andrew Burges.

The BikeTank is supported by the City of Sydney through a Local Action Plans Matching Grant. The Creative Minds Sessions are supported by a University of Technology, Sydney Vice Chancellorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Learning & Teaching Grant.

PREFACE Chance favours the connected mind, as Steven Johnson says in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. u.lab is the collective brainchild of energetic young UTS Staff. health technologies, social sciences, design and built environments to look at complex and pressing social problems. It provides an emergent interdisciplinary framework for entrepreneurial innovation projects at UTS. Through this it connects creative and innovative intergenerational minds across UTS, government, industry and the surrounding community. In this vibrant space, collective creativity and innovation is fostered. In their own words, u.lab is about â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;uâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, what you bring to the mix. Together they manifest new ideas by capitalizing on their diversity. Sir George Cox says design converts creative ideas into innovation to bring about change. In u.lab you generate ideas and convert them into prototypes for future innovation thereby enhancing your entrepreneurial abilities. Play and social interchange are essential to creativity and at u.lab this is done over the aroma and hissing sounds of an espresso machine. Its humming energy beckons you to this welcoming space. It is unique at UTS for it brings staff and students from across faculties. They interact with the wider city community and attract entrepreneurial minds to collectively use the tools of the day in an environment expertly facilitated by passionate u.lab staff. They collectively take an idea and create a prototype, sometimes within the space of an hour. In this short time and space, the tools provided help them to manifest â&#x20AC;&#x153;the setting, pressing social problems can be provocatively re-thought and moved into a new dimension of entrepreneurial solutions. Indeed from the initial offerings represented in this booklet I am sure that much bigger things will grow in future years. I invite you to be part of this visionary happening at UTS in whatever way you are able.

Professor Manjula Waldron

INTRODUCTION Welcome to u.lab! This little book is full of BIG ideas that document our ambition to evolve learning, research and enterprise collaborations to be more

all levels. We invite you to join us at u.lab and to participate in collaboration that nudges and blurs the places where we once felt comfortable and energises them into new hybrid modes of exploration. Over the last year we engaged in development of our own unique methods through three distinct but connected experiments: First was the Creative Minds Sessions - a two week intensive thinking and doing course for undergraduate students. Its goal was to build creative problem solving skills and to observe truly cross-faculty teams and how they can tackle social challenges like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sustainable consumptionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; using design thinking principles. From that we started the Entrepreneurship Lab, a joint postgraduate subject with mixed teams of courageous, passionate and highly motivated Masters degree students from the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and the UTS Business School. In the Entrepreneurship Lab we took a 16 week deep dive into design thinking processes, with our end goal to create entrepreneurial business ideas, leveraging interdisciplinary thinking, a focus on human values and a culture of experimentation. The four enterprise projects presented in this book are QuickFox, a ride-share concept that builds a broad ethic of sharing; Thrive, a decentralised hub network of co-working spaces that aims to get LiveHive, a mobile incubator space for creating more connected communities; and S2S, a hybrid housing model to integrate international students into the city using human centred design principles. On the completion of the Entrepreneurship Lab student will stand up and pitch their businesses to would-be investors in our culminating event: u.lab Launch Pad. Third, we also developed the BikeTank - a weekly public event to explore city-to-university mixed collaboration for rapid paced ideation

INTRODUCTION

and prototyping. The BikeTank is an urban connectivist think-tank that doubles as a bicycle pitstop cafe and a public feedback mechanism for our Entrepreneurship Lab students. At BikeTank intensive workshops we explore how design can make cities more human. These three initiatives are closely related in that they build on each other and share the same u.lab ethos. u.lab is young, but it is strong and it represents our ambition to engage in meaningful collaboration across academia, practice and community. u.lab is already a place where the three groups come together. We hope for it to grow and bring about positive change where it touches people.

u.lab

U.LAB

The u.lab Philosophy “There is a need to expand design perspectives through rich and relevant multi-disciplinary projects - This is the professional reality of today’s world.” entirely with a single discipline workforce, and that paper was the is no reason to disbelieve these claims, this is certainly not the professional reality of today’s world. Today, the most innovative work groups and leading design teams have multi-disciplinary. These are also the values embodied in the u.lab, this is what we are bringing to the table. The ‘Key Three’ that enable the u.lab to incubate, nurture and develop these values in our community are Environment, Culture and Opportunity.

1. Environment: A space that is free from preconceptions and baggage - a space that breeds innovation - a space that frees inhibition a clean space.

open, adaptable, and it’s inspiring, motivating, and inherently rewarding. The u.lab was designed as such so as not to colour, taint, direct or shape the innovation within. It was designed as such so that ideas and creativity are clearly visible and resonant against its walls. It was designed as such so that there was no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’... whether it be in terms of ideas, approaches, disciplines or backgrounds... ideas are free to shine.

U.LAB

2. Culture: A shift from ‘what do I need to know’ to ‘what is out there to know’. At u.lab we believe that knowledge feeds the world and ideas open doors, and when we take ownership, insights, opportunities and rewards will result. The key is culture; effecting the change from the oh-so-common ‘what do I need to know to get the job done’ convergent attitude to the ‘what is out there to know’ divergent attitude. When the culture moves to

3. Opportunity: An extension beyond the immediate - A connection to the real-world - a direction and pathway to follow. The third u.lab cannon is Opportunity; connecting our community, highlighting options, forging pathways. u.lab recognises that people invest most in what they truly believe in and so incubating Opportunity is a priority. When it’s clear that there are worthwhile outlets for one’s work, when a connection between the immediate and the real-world, when it is clear that ‘this’ is really going somewhere, then inhibitions are dropped and motivation soars - at the u.lab we believe in not only opening the door, but revealing the world behind it. The u.lab is about you - the change you can affect, the contributions you can make, the growth you can enjoy and what you can be once the ‘walls’ have been replaced with the u.lab.

u.lab Beginnings In exploring todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complex problems we are continually bringing in new people with different points of view. Collaboration and engagement, not individualism, is an essential part of the design process. representing a range of different disciplines. Our team is Jochen Schweitzer (Business), Joanne Jakovich and Julie Jupp (Design, Architecture and Building), and Wayne Brookes and Nathan Kirchner (Engineering and Information Technology) (also known as 3JWN). At the beginning of 2011, we travelled to Silicon Valley to take a closer look at Stanfordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s d.school, learn about their unique brand of design thinking, and meet with the programâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovators. The mix of disciplines that we represented was perceived by many d.schoolers as aligned with their principles and qualitatively different from other visiting academic teams typically from a single discipline.

Spending time at the d.school at Stanford University.

U.LAB We immersed ourselves in the stimulating interactive environment that surrounds d.school and nurtures a community committed to establishing new initiatives. As an educational institute, the d.school is focused on transforming people. It is a place where people come together to work on projects that require different competencies and points of view. teaching program, the design thinking process, the diverse mix of disciplines from both academia and industry, and how together they can support innovation. Collaboration and engagement are central to the culture of innovation that is fostered at the d.school. Cross-disciplinary teamwork enables d.schoolers to move quickly beyond obvious solutions, in part facilitated be the deferral of judgement so as to build on each other’s ideas. Their approach to what they call ‘radical collaboration’ is aimed not only at creating innovation but also at sustaining the right mindset within communities of action. We perceived the d.school’s use of space as key to the success of collaborative design activities. Via our participation in a variety of programs, such as ‘Design Garage’, ‘Creative Gym’ and ‘Design for Extreme Affordability’, we witnessed how space is integral to the design thinking process and how it becomes a tool and a kind of teacher. It was obvious to all that the d.school’s physical environment impacted positively on a design team’s innovation process and fuelled creativity. Seeing the d.school in action brought into focus how important a space can be in driving a culture of innovation.

Joanne and Jochen meet with IDEO and d.school founder David Kelley.

U.LAB

Growing the u.lab Concept On returning from Stanford, our goal was to develop a unique crossfaculty program with the u.lab initiative establishing the overarching umbrella. During the Autumn Semester the team embarked on a series of mashups that gave form to a range of new ideas and approaches to teaching and research as well as industry and community engagement. Recognising that change happens through communities of action, not just individuals, we embraced open collaborative ways of working across our different points of view to develop the project. Throughout this period of development, our path converged with like-minded individuals from the UTS Business School who were exploring design thinking; Melissa Edwards and Natalia Nikolova brought their skills and knowledge to the collaboration. Via our conversations, a raft of new events and programs were brought together and synthesised, ranging from the Creative Minds and BikeTank series to the Entrepreneurship Lab. A new u.lab model for cross-faculty collaborative teaching and research was developed based on â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not individual brilliance - but co-design.

Mashups involved applying interdisciplinary design thinking processes to designing the u.lab.

Continual Learning cross-disciplinary practice as an intentional learning process so that everyone gains (you, your team, and your community). Its methods support and encourage ways of experiencing and understanding crossdisciplinary practice across UTS faculties and schools. This includes our creation of opportunities to learn new perspectives and ways of knowing; purposefully educating each other to collectively enable a systems perspective; learning through experience and failure; and learning how to negotiate meanings across perspectives and disciplines; and formulating or investigating problems through multiple lenses. A predominant feature that the u.lab experience aims to facilitate is therefore a passion and appreciation for continual learning.

u.lab: An Innovation Hub As an innovation hub, u.lab has its own unique brand that addresses

design thinking therefore stresses teamwork based on collaboration and engagement in an environment that is supportive of emotional expression. Together these ingredients represent the conditions needed to work together with people from different backgrounds, from different levels of expertise, and of different ages. The cultural setting of the u.lab is therefore an important element. Consequently, collaboration and engagement encompass social learning and our focus on complex â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;localâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; problems includes both social and global elements. Design conversations occurring under the u.lab umbrella are encouraged to build awareness of differences - developing from the recognition of disciplinary distinctions to respecting disciplinary training by promoting social learning at the intersection of those differences.

U.LAB

On the Importance of Space

(or, why everybody needs a garage...) Where does innovation happen? Where are people when they have their suits. Open-plan cubicle mazes? Hmm, not there either. Maybe we just need to put a coffee machine in the kitchenette? Or paint the walls with bold stripes of primary colours? If only it was that simple. When you think about it, an awful lot of inventions and innovations seem to start in a garage. But that doesn’t mean it has to be dirty, uncomfortable or unpleasant – often the inventor’s garage is clean (if somewhat disorganised to the casual observer), well equipped with tools and random objects collected over time, and generally a comfortable place where he or she can easily spend a few hours and lose track of time. To embody the u.lab concept, we needed a physical space. Belonging to a university means we have access to a wide range of classrooms and lecture theatres and all sorts of specialised laboratories. But these spaces come with constraints. Being shared by so many users, they are necessarily generic, and there are preconceptions of what activities can and cannot, should and should not take place in there; and they have to be pre-booked in regular timeslots. No, what we needed was a garage! A of engagement. Of course it doesn’t have to physically be a garage. We took a raw and malleable space in the UTS Kensington St warehouse (thanks to the School of Architecture) and added the ingredients of our metaphorical ‘garage’: space that is adaptable, and can be shaped to suit a variety of activities. Creative Minds, BikeTank and the Entrepreneurship Lab all use space in different ways; collaboration and participation. Long tables, tall tables, bar stools. Some short tables and chairs too, but nobody should sit down for too long;

to write on, stick things on, and the freedom to leave them there for next time. The room can’t be everybody’s afraid to get dirty, or that must always be cleaned off at the end of the session. creativity is a messy business;

needs a part of the space to call their own, even if it’s a board or wall they can cover with their ideas. A sense of shared ownership is important; and gather round for team presentations and pitches.We have couches, a fridge, a selection of teas and coffees, and food to share from time to time. This area needs whiteboards and paper too – sometimes the best ideas come when you take a break. In fact, the purpose of this area is not so much about taking a break, but providing a different zone within the larger space to allow the brain to switch gears. Don’t tell the students this – they think they’re taking a break; more bizarre and colourful, the better. Reused and recycled wherever possible. Things to provide rigid structures and foundations of all shapes and sizes; things that bind other things together; things to mould and bend into random shapes; things that are simply colourful

for prototyping. Scissors and craft knives; pliers for bending; hot glue guns (who’s got time to wait for glue to dry?), and more ...;

tubes inspire no-one; not technology-dominated. Sure we still need our WiFi, video projectors, screens and the freedom to use our laptops, tablets and smartphones. But the space is not about the technology, it’s about people and ideas; Above all, the space allows everybody in it to see the creativity taking place. It’s boards of post-it notes and masses of brown paper covered in ideas. Everything is big and bold, so anyone entering the space is immersed in the culture of u.lab, and feels invited to join in and co-create with us.

In creating collaborative spaces for u.lab, the intention was to make

as instructors of physical negotiation, rapid realisation, iterations of new prototypes and communication of outputs. We are at the beginning of our u.lab journey, and have had the opportunity to create our space and watch it evolve over time, and to see what works and what doesn’t. As we evolve further, our space will inevitably change with us, but we will always remember that sometimes the best ideas come out of a garage.

U.LAB

The u.lab is advantageously located in the centre of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emergent creative precinct that spans Chippendale, Surry Hills, Ultimo and Redfern, and includes some of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major arts, educational and business organisations. This diagram mines the top layer of visible creative and digital businesses. On the granular level where u.lab operates, many more curious adaptive uses of old light industrial spaces are bringing the streets to life and feeding into our public events.

U.LAB

Your Thoughts on u.lab We mined our emails, videos, twitter, blogs and facebook and found out about more about you: what you think, what you enjoy, and what the experiences and community of u.lab mean to you:

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thank you again for the invitation to sit in on your workshop today. It was so interesting, inspiring and engaging!â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I loved the space. I thought it was a great creative space to allow us to make the most of the room, and was very relaxed.â&#x20AC;?

U.LAB

“A fantastic eye opening experience.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;...You should come up to BikeTank one morning and see what they manage with a constantly changing group in a short amount of time. Many of the ideas generated are similar to this and people like me actually do get involved in role play (something I find terrifying!). They deal each week with thematic issues very similar to these and within an hour all of the people there who may never have met come up with some fascinating approaches. The focus is really very similar to this and evolves each week. Smart people from all over the city are drawn there because they know other smart people are there. I see it as a disruptive wave of innovation in inner city thinking.â&#x20AC;? 33

Mal Booth

U.LAB

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The great value of u.lab is that it provides students, academics and organisations the space to imagine a different world, and the tools to achieve it. Whether starting a new venture, or engaging with the challenges faced by business and communities, or simply realising the potential of individuals working creatively in multidisciplinary teams, everyone gains from the power of design and integrative thinking.â&#x20AC;? Roy Green

â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we made our model and presented it and got the feedback it was really rewarding.â&#x20AC;?

U.LAB

“So I spent this Tuesday morning down in a disused warehouse space at BikeTank, talking about how to save the world. Sounds hip. Idealistic. Right? Maybe, but I feel energised. Four lecturers/researchers at UTS wanted to foster some of the creative and innovative thinking they’ve encountered through collaborative environments at other universities. They wanted to get people together to talk about our city and our communities.” Make, Green & Do 36

“Just a quick note to say how wonderful I thought Tuesday’s event was. Hopefully there will be another opportunity!”

Shirley Alexander

U.LAB

“Factories are cool.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I came to the Creative Minds sessions because I wanted to expand the way I think and get a free lunch!â&#x20AC;?

U.LAB

“Great pic Marty! In the top one behind Susanna the people are (L-R): Nathan Kirchner (one of the academics who makes BikeTank happen), Nathan Wiltshire (one of the MBA student facilitators), and Sophie McDonald (in yellow – a colleague from our library). I’m still amazed at how much they can encourage us all to do in about 60 mins: listen, collaborate, produce something and then perform and watch all the presentations. It is pretty impressive stuff.” Mal Booth 40

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Biketank provides a forum where a broad spectrum of knowledge and talent can focus on and authorise a solution for the challenges presented.â&#x20AC;? 41

Rob Mueck

U.LAB

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I learnt the benefits of constructive criticism to always keep you thinking and considering all your options to broaden your thinking as much as possible.â&#x20AC;?

“For me, BikeTank is a great opportunity to meet motivated people from all walks of life who are passionate about improving cities. I’ve loved the collaborative idea making sessions at BikeTank: they’re fun, educational and welcomingly silly at times – just the ticket to fuel the next wave in sustainable place making.”

Kimberley Crofts

U.LAB

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The BikeTank format is fast and fun, but it generates some broad and deep thinking. Cycling loosens people up, encourages playfulness, and is a common ground for a diverse range of people to think together about our neighbourhoods, villages, and cities.â&#x20AC;? Trent Middleton 44

“Sunday was fun - thanks. Great to get the creative juices flowing.”

Llewellyn Newlyn.

U.LAB

â&#x20AC;&#x153;BikeTank is a unique opportunity for Sydney residents, academics, students and government to imagine, cross-pollinate and create ideas for a better city. A great success for participatory design, I enjoy the positive energy, enthusiasm and possibility offered by BikeTank.â&#x20AC;? Gareth Johnston

“I think BikeTank has some interesting values, collaboration and actions, as well as if I can put it my own phrase it’s “start with ourselves”. With BikeTank, sharing a simple idea with some people that you know, you can start to think and do something that show your care about your city.”

Vida Asrina

U.LAB

“BikeTank provides the wider community with an informal and dynamic platform where people can collaborate and learn from one another. I love coming to BikeTank! Each week presents a new challenge, a new source of inspiration, and a different method of approach to redesigning the structures of our domain. If there’s one thing that I find invaluable, it’s that I’ve been provided with the opportunity to engage with other progressive individuals who have not only reaffirmed my vision for sustainability, but also inspired me to ponder conventional predicaments with renewed creativity.” Cathy Xiao Chen :)

“I learnt the importance of researching and really getting to know your subject. I also learnt that it’s very beneficial to establish a creative team that may have slightly different views and opinions, as it allows you to consider new options that you wouldn’t normally consider and expands your thinking.”

U.LAB

“Congratulations to you and team on yesterday’s event which was a great success, and while it seemed to flow effortlessly we know how much preparation goes into such initiatives.” Roy Green

â&#x20AC;&#x153;...I am immersed in creativity until Wed. that is the theme of mind and its potential conference. It is good to sit back and synthesize all that is out there and see where to take it next. u.lab are right on the cutting edge in OZ as far as I can tell. Look forward to a cyber meet. Have a great weekend. â&#x20AC;?

--Manjula

1: CREATIVE MINDS

CREATIVE MINDS

Passionate people taking on critical issues using creative thinking. The Creative Minds Sessions are a series of workshops that aim to tackle pressing issues in Sydney and globally. Together with a small group of students and academics your creative journey will be facilitated using integrative and design thinking. The Creative Minds Sessions are part of u.lab, a fresh initiative to foster innovation across the University. Welcome to a growing community of dynamic and creative people.

CREATIVE MINDS

A Pilot... During the Creative Minds Sessions knowledge boundaries are lost through discovery, play and creation. We engage in iteration, play in paradox, test and prototype ideas. This process takes place in a porous social space where engagement with users is the motivation for design; where complex problems inspire empathetic solutions that immerse user experiences; where knowledge occurs through agency and enaction; where business models are generated by experience, experimentation and interaction rather than numbers, monetary value and analysis; where variables are mapped and synthesised rather than isolated and analysed. Creative Minds ideation emerged out of the collaborative action of three lecturers at the UTS Business School at a time when the Global Financial Crisis called into question Business School curricula. Inspired by Sir George Cox’s review of creativity in business, Sir Ken Robinson’s advocacy for cultivating creativity, visits to Standford’s D.School, Parson’s New School, and fuelled by our wish to actively innovate business education, Jochen, Natalia and Mel set out to break with their disciplinary context and develop the Creative Minds concept for UTS. Creative Minds is based on the successful design thinking method in use at Stanford’s D.School and its many adaptations at other places around the world. It is enriched by our own teaching and training experiences in the context of our urban Sydney setting. This is a

“Working on the Creative Minds project feels like a breath of fresh air.” We wanted to break out of existing teaching and learning paradigms, push the boundaries and create a model to allow students and teachers to learn while having fun and addressing pressing issues only signals what we expect from our students but also how we as educators envision our role in developing the sessions. We wanted to engage in an playful space where curriculum would invoke experience, where ideas could be enacted and where knowledge boundaries would become invisible. We do this by making irreverent our disciplinary silos, embracing process and delving into transdisciplinary wisdom. 56

Through wanting to enable a challenging learning experience that provokes students to question everything, we too asked ourselves fundamental questions that rock our identities as business academics. How can education contextualise holistic knowledge, not just the tip of a discipline? How could we not just engage, but inspire students to master and enact their own learning without lecturing them? How could we see ideas grow beyond the written form? Could we prioritise street wisdom over published academic text? Could we engage with students as learners ourselves rather than masters?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Not only have we set out to create a playful social space, we playfully interact with the academic norms.â&#x20AC;? By means of exploration we not only developed the Creative Minds philosophy in the iterations of the program development. We tested the tools of the D.School method with students and contextualised this with and further development. half day workshops. We focused on engaging a mix of undergraduate students and invited them to tackle a complex social problem: excessive consumption and waste. Participants were purposely selected by colleagues from various disciplines including business, architecture, construction management, IT, engineering and social inquiry. We invited sharp thinkers, who would voluntarily engage with other sharp thinkers and develop ideas that would invoke action towards social change. The serendipitous enactment of this project in the u.lab warehouse embodies the Creative Minds vision. An unstructured space devoid of the usual student expectations of a classroom setting. Three deliberate spaces indicated the modes of engagement; a stage with screen and lounges for formal pitches and discussions, lounges for sharing food and conversation and a workshop space for action, iteration and prototyping. The open space allowed lots of movement and interaction and signalled

Set outside of the university grounds, the warehouse became an interface between academia and the community.

CREATIVE MINDS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the first session students clung to the centre table. They moved around once their confidence grew with the technique.â&#x20AC;? Melissa.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used brown paper for sketching and drawing. Visual brainstorming was encouraged.â&#x20AC;? jochen

CREATIVE MINDS

“This process is more ‘arty farty’ but it has been good. I didn’t think I was as creative as I have been.” Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

“I think this is such intelligent group work. If you are all doing the same degree as well it is bad because you are all so homogeneous. So this is so much better, because we all have such different perspectives and they know things that I don’t know.” Participant 64

CREATIVE MINDS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Empathy played an important part of the creative problemsolving, which I would have usually avoided when problem solving in favour of objectivity.â&#x20AC;?

Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

“The process made me step out of my usual skin and think in a different manner.” ParticipaNT 68

CREATIVE MINDS

“It definitely challenged my personal point of view and showed me how to absorb others POVs without passing judgement.” Participant

“I’m very happy we not only produced an idea and product, but that we got to literally enact the idea and see it work in real life.” Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was definitely intimidated. Coming from a business background we never do any of this hands on prototyping. But I found it was a really good experience.â&#x20AC;? Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

What we Learned So Far The journey has only just begun. Yet, we have learned so much already. From our initial analysis of feedback data and interview footage we can tell that the majority of participants in the Creative Minds sessions experienced a raised self awareness of their capacity to be generativly creative.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was really surprised that we could come up with an idea which I thought was pretty good, given that we had little experience and only one of us had a creative background so I was really satisfied.â&#x20AC;? sense of empowerment and high levels of motivation fostered amongst participants. The students volunteered for the sessions, and despite their other commitments they returned enthused for each of the four sessions. For some their intrigue was heightened such that they conducted unprovoked further research during the two to four day break between sessions. Through their exceptional engagement some students delved deeply into the empathy work - an experience business students surprise regarding how their collective capacity could develop a workable prototype solution for a complex social issue. In this state of heightened sensitivity several students reported changes to their own behaviours and attitudes towards the issue at hand: sustainability. They saw the issue differently. While all participants reported that collaborating with students from other disciplines was challenging, they perceived it as simultaneously stimulating. It was obvious to all involved that there were great

their usual thought patterns. When they were pushed to embody their ideas and materialise them through prototyping their ideas were synthesised and they quickly collaborated synchronously. They laughed, talked, argued and sometimes fought over ideas - because there was so many worthy ones. We noted that some students struggled to materialise their ideas in early iterations of the creative process. While masters of their ideas, they were amateurs of the prototype. After playing for a while, they built trust in their groups, brought humour into their creations and 74

were able to work with materials to their individual strengths. After several iterations they moved quickly and immersed with materials to build and create.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I found after going out and talking to people on the streets in both the research and prototype phase, I was excited by the range of ideas, feelings and responses from people that I spoke to; which made me eager to get back to work and develop our ideas and prototype further.â&#x20AC;? At the end of the sessions students were left wanting more. With conviction of their ideas enforced by the feedback from external reviewers and their peers, they were pumped with enthusiasm hoping to further materalise their ideas in the community. Certainly such feedback convinces us of the power of this mode of engagement and inspires us as educators to provide further incubation to lift ideas out of the workshop and into the world. As lecturers we found ourselves transition to facilitators and colearners who guided and took part in the learning at the same time. We perceived stagnation points and deliberately used the Creative Minds Kit with its practice cards, context cards and tool cards to spur iteration. We drew on our own resources when students were seeking knowledge and we drew on our networks to provide divergent views and opportunities for feedback. We gave back with our insights and shared in the iterations. We were instructional, but not directive. We encouraged exploration, but set simple process rules or focal tasks. We asked big questions, but inspired them to feel. Creative thinking and enthusiasm can be stimulated by giving people the opportunity to engage with challenging, real and fun projects. We found that the following ingredients helped achieve creative outputs: open and stimulating space with lots of opportunities to move around; a mix of students and academics from different disciplinary and professional backgrounds; a rich set of materials to experiment with; a method for collaboration and problem solving as presented in the Creative Minds Kit to guide but not prescribe behaviour and problem

As educators, we found that the Creative Minds sessions enabled us to be more daring, more enthusiastic, more unstructured, risk-takers. To be or not to be? To engage with an old age question, we chose to be. But importantly we chose to be different, to be risk-taking, to go with the

CREATIVE MINDS

“Yes when we made Bob (persona) for the first time it was really great to identify his needs. It made me feel like I knew what I was aiming for now.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inspiration leads to more risk-taking which enables more creativity.â&#x20AC;? Participant

CREATIVE MINDS

We aim to Keep Pushing Boundaries The Creative Minds project truly challenges the status quo of traditional structures and methods of business conduct and education. by elaborate structural equations. They are modeled and abstracted. Solutions are often predetermined in the analysis. Evaluation sets the benchmark to determine success. Problems are detected by benchmark deviations through rational thought and linear business process methodologies. Standard problem solving is approached by breaking the issue into component parts, analyzing, looking for alternate solutions, evaluating solutions and then choosing the best case scenario. The structures encapsulate the process. The solution emerges once the problem is solved. Solutions are derived through intellectual strategies and then delivered to users. The Creative Minds project embraces a new paradigm, one where complex, interconnected problems require new types of solutions involving disruptive technologies, cultural shift and divergent thinking. The creative problem solver breaks through the model and blurs the collaborative way of engaging with real-life problems where creativity derives through immersion in the complexity of the holistic issue. There are no isolated components, everything connects. Insights are generated by engaging with a social reality that is complex, paradoxical and pervasive. Solutions are generated through iterative engagement and development with humans (team members, citizens, users, or customers), materials and technologies. The aesthetic is inspired less by intellectual processes of abstract thought and more by touch, smell, sound, sight, taste and dialog. Immersion in the u.lab warehouse space, sharing thoughts over food and ideas whilst roaming the streets to generate insights, stimulating Creative Minds sessions push the boundaries of traditional business school education. As we immersed ourselves in the Creative Minds process, our own minds the energy and enthusiasm in the group dynamic. The separation between lecturer and student dissolved. Our roles became enablers, observers, facilitators. Our knowledge built the passage way, the students layed the path, we made the journey together and everyone learnt along the way. 78

What’s Next? Are the sessions for everyone? We envision Creative Minds sessions be freely available to every UTS student. Equity and opportunity are met with open access. Will the Creative Minds sessions be met with such enthusiasm by all students? Or did our hand selection skew the results in favour of the positive? Optimistically, we are encouraged by what we see with this pilot. Creativity is something we can invoke through heightened curiosity, playful process and true engagement with possibility. We hope the mode of engagement will be contagious and consequently knowledge will grow and diffuse. When empathy enters economy we anticipate boundaries to shift. We think it is timely that such

place; rather, we see the Creative Minds model evolving continuously. Rest and perfection are not our goals; we aim instead for development and growth. True to the spirit of u.lab and the Creative Minds project, our students demonstrated but one possibility of creative potential that can spiral out of the u.lab model. Without the broader initiative within the context of the u.lab as a place for cross disciplinary encounter, Creative Minds sits alone as curriculum initiative, an elective course that is the exemption from the rule. We envision a new rule: education as an experience involving breaking rules and experimenting. Some learnings from the Creative Minds sessions already found their way into the design of u.lab’s BikeTank and Entrepreneurship Lab, as well as our other research and teaching commitments. In a second iteration of the Creative Minds sessions we would like to explore how we can enable students to truly incubate their ideas over an extended time period; to immerse deeply and generate living prototypes. Through the u:Lab family we will extend the community of collaborators, thinkers and practitioners who collectively build the web of creative practice across all disciplinary silos. Now, we want to share our insights with colleagues who share similar passions. We want to engage in conversations and build towards actions with people like you, so that universities become creation hubs not ivory towers. For this story to continue we seek feedback and dialogue with one simple goal in mind - let’s transform universities to enable more creative minds!

2: BIKETANK

BIKETANK BikeTank is an experiment in collective creativity for cities; a new form of think tank that you cycle to. It is comprised of a multiplicity of members, all self-elected, who come from diverse pockets of the Sydney community. Together we are exploring how design can make cities more human. At BikeTank workshops we prototype modes and spaces of innovation, embracing multi-generational inspiration and sharing. Each week is an entrepreneurs and leading thinkers, contributing to a bigger picture project. BikeTank is an open event that takes place every Tuesday morning, with

to think about urban challenges.

BIKETANK Design is a process of generative deduction where we generate ideas through expansive thinking and deduce unexpected solutions through connective, intuitive thinking. The more stimulators we have to activate more synapses (both in and between people), and to construct more nodes of intelligence, the better. ‘Intelligence’ includes bodily, social, intuitive and playful knowing and that’s why we think cycling to a think tank is a great way to prime the relative facilities for exploring and creating. At BikeTank we want people to experience collaborative designing rather than just talk about it. Our focus is on rapid collaborative prototyping in a social and playful way. By making representations of design as concrete and embedded in the city as possible, we are constructing a more human city. As Alan Kay remarked: “The best way performance, i.e. a place where we constitute subjects and shape objects, then design is the best tool to drag the present towards the future. The participants become the active actors in the performance. We believe that good innovation happens in situations of trust and where there is a culture of sharing. As a way of nurturing trust, BikeTank intentionally breaks across disciplinary silos, but it also breaches the boundary between academia and the city, embracing multi-generational inspiration between learners and professionals, students and lifelong learners. We feel that diversity, not only interdisciplinarity, is the key ingredient to creative innovation. Through diversity, and engendering processes for listening and empathising, we are generating a culture of generosity - sharing over fear - which we think is the missing ingredient in a lot of innovation processes.

Proposing BikeTank involved visualising the network of entrepreneurs, creators, companies and community member who might cycle into our Chippendale warehouse.

BIKETANK

The BikeTank 5x5 engage with participants in an inclusive, nonthreatening, fun and exciting way that allows maximum ideation in a very short time frame. The 5X5 is a pressure cooker innovation exercise consisting of 5 steps of 5 minutes each. The types of steps in a 5X5 include: others’ feelings and experiences; implications or possibilities of separate components of the problem; locked modes of thinking through switching modalities, e.g. moving into making rather than writing; ideas that merge from unexpected observations and conclusions; physical model-making or role-playing as ways to articulate their ideas. The aim of the 5X5 is to force ‘outside the box’ and ‘on your feet’ thinking in teams, plus rapid prototyping to tackle seemingly complex design challenges. At least two teams of about ten people race against the clock to develop ideas on a particular topic. Culminating in a prototyping exercise, teams become engrossed in the representation of their ideas, and At each BikeTank the front projection screen holds the current task and the countdown timer.

inspirational proposals for the city.

The Future of BikeTank Since BikeTank events began in August 2011, we have tackled environments, car sharing, integrating migrants into existing communities, sustainable food supply, alternative modes of transport, cycling networks, and creative innovation. The amazing outcomes are as diverse as proposals for multi-use drive-thru bicycle washes, radical kinds of urban space sharing, to community gardens and dinner clubs. The While non-student participants at the BikeTank may change each week, projects (as part of the Entrepreneurship Lab) throughout the semester. BikeTanks provide a mechanism to inspire and critique studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; thinking and help grow and shape ideas. The student teams continue applying design thinking practices to get deeper insights and further develop their ideas to come closer to a pitch for a potential startup enterprise. We see that the BikeTank model is a replicable one and that in the series of such models that generate, then incubate collective creativity enterprises. We hope to see BikeTanks emerge around Sydney and around the world to take on the important task of developing new enterprise models and nurturing them to progressively integrate within the city. Our plan is to grow sustainable forms of thriving businesses that energise relationships of city concerns. Through BikeTank we are exploring a current paradigm shift towards a more participatory economy of meaning,

We invite you to take part!

BIKETANK #1

BikeTank #1 sets out to determine a series of themes that will shape the rest of the series. We chose four negative emotions [fear, anger, shame, greed] and asked table groups issue that characteried the emotion in the city.

Our blog post: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eyes wide open to the cacophony produced by the wheels and brains of u.lab in Chippendale on 23rd of August 2011. We started the morning with Bourke St Bakery danishes and some iconic yet disrupting(ed) thoughts from guest Gareth Johnston. Once the timer

started, 5 fast-paced phases (of 5 minutes each) envisioned the city through emotions - greed, fear, anger and shame, countered by joy, love, gratitude and hope. The closing 5 minutes spewed the collective vision outward onto a 12m brownpaperscape, the emotional panorama of a citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement high on oxygen and speed (cycling

BIKETANK #2

BikeTank #2 hosted guest thinker Sebastien EckersleyMaslin who spoke about his various entrepreneurial pursuits. The 5X5 picked up the proposals from the and empathy processes to identify the viewpoints of the stakeholders. We developed short role plays that expressed the needs and narrative of the users and presented these in (a somewhat hilarious) roleplay series. The paper speech bubbles pictured were used to visualise the key statements to the audience.

+ + +

BIKETANK #3

At BikeTank #3 we welcomed South Australian Goverment Architect Ben Hewett to share his inspirational stories of the Integrated Design Commission and the new 5000plus community centred city redesign. The 5X5 was designed to give feedback to Entrepreneurship Lab students who had developed prototypes from BikeTank #2 outcomes. In the 3rd step, we broke into a rapid making storm and out of recycled materials. Using the freedom of these thinking caps to augment our mind, we then returned back to our tables and developed brands and strategies for the products that we reviewed.

BIKETANK #4

This was the Sydney Rides Festival Special BikeTank where we invited Digital Eskimo director David Gravina to speak about his cycling advocacy event Keep It Wheel. The 5X5 explored rapid prototyping of new cycling hubs around Sydney’s suburbs of Surry Hills, Chatswood, Newtown and Redfern. Not only did we see the lateral expansion of the notion of ‘hub’ into a variety of network and distributed solutions, we also had some whiz-bang solutions to the tired old problem of bodily sweat: a ride-through car and-bike to ride through, get clean and smell sweet before riding the last few metres to work.

BIKETANK #5

This week at BikeTank #5 we asked participants to develop an urban event that utilised a shared interest ‘vehicle’, such as the bicycle in BikeTank, to stimulate the participation and launch of the event. We then gave participants blank canvases and they developed ‘faceboards’ to both paint and role-play the scenario proposed in their event.

The “Green Canvas encourage more people to experience art in more diverse ways and locations, while promoting outdoor leisure in proposed that the paintings from the galleries be hung in the Park and that plants replicating the park be brought into the galleries for a special festival period.

BIKETANK #6

BikeTank #6 explored the world of social food in cities, inviting special guest thinker Cenk Baban to share his story of setting up the Social Dinner Club. In the 5X5 we designed a series of vertical technology farms that incorporated a dining experience with any ten the 5X5 by designing a rap to perform to the BikeTank community that talked about our designs and how we would like you to experience them.

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BIKETANK #7

We opened this special Sunday edition of BikeTank to cater for families who were out and about at the Sydney Architecture Festival. Masters of Architecture student Ashlee Stocks presented her competitionwinning 5-minute speech on advocacy for density in Sydney.

In the 5X5 we studied four empty sites in Sydney and looked at the kinds of values we would want a sharing-centred model of denser living to have. We found so many ways that we could share in our community, not only materials things, but skills, time and caring also. We built ourselves some ‘creative developer caps’ and used these to shape our ideas around a new kind of densityvitality redevelopment of the site. Proposals expanded the typical developer’s notion of living and moved into an integration between city processes of food and energy generation combined with community aware living.

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BIKETANK #8

At BikeTank #8 we welcomed special guest thinker Camilla Schippa from the Institute of Economics and Peace who spoke of the Global Peace Index for rating countries and states on their relative level of peacefulness. Camilla also reminded us that peace must be a pre-requisite for any collaboration. Our 5X5 took that notion and explored zones of in the city, proposing new forms of socially-generated interactions that brought respect, care and generosity back into the city. The Tartan Roads Concept (right) proposed a gridded hierarchy of streets to allow cyclist and pedestrians to enjoy dedicated streets A street-side bicycle bell artwork would allow children leaving a daycare centre to ring the bell to warn cyclists before crossing over the cycle way. This and similar approaches designed awareness and civility into the infrastructure.

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BIKETANK #9

At BikeTank #9 we invited guest thinker Omar Khalifa to speak about his work as CEO of Bicycles NSW. We explored his concept of ‘mental bollards’ in the future scenarios of the proposed George Street closure and opening up of Light Rail. We explored two sets of stakeholders and used these to develop ‘two-headedmonsters’, mythical characters with split personalities, one body and two heads. The character;s prototypes were dedveloped using XXXXXXL white shirts with a double neck hole cut out. These characters came to perform the storytelling script that exposed the compelling points of view of each stakeholder.

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BIKETANK

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BIKETANK

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BIKETANK

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BIKETANK

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3: ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Ever wanted to be an entrepreneur? Or maybe you already are? Do you want to better understand the creative processes that drive innovation? Take your ideas and turn them into prototypes? Work with people who think differently than you do? Explore and enhance your own creativity? Change the world? The Entrepreneurship Lab is an interdisciplinary design thinking environment within which students leverage their own discipline knowledge to innovate new approaches for solving components of a big picture problem. Students work collaboratively in mixed teams to apply the skills and practices of ‘Design Thinking’ and ‘Creative Enterprise’ to develop solutions that catalyse social purpose into the reality of business. The pilot course was set-up as a mixed subject allowing postgraduate business and architecture students to enrol with the objective to produce working prototypes of new social media systems, intelligent objects, smart services or integrated design products that could be the seed for a new start-up enterprise at the end of the semester. During workshops, industry and university mentors work with students to help unlock creativity and turn ideas into entrepreneurial action. The learning objectives and assessment items for the course were designed to satisfy both participating faculties’ requirements. In essence, we designed a course that would enable students to: tackle ‘big picture’ problems that span the domains of technology, business and human factors; students from other disciplines and mentors from both university and industry;

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domain, and from this, develop a point of view towards a chosen problem;

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB demonstrate a bias towards action; methodologies being used, and be able to identify learning needs and seek answers independently; appropriate materials to pitch an idea to a potential investor. The workshops ran at the u.lab warehouse on Tuesdays 9am-12pm and Fridays 2-5pm from weeks 2-6 and 10-15 during Spring Semester 2011. The teaching days included a dynamic and interactive combination presentation and discussion formats were designed to provoke critical debate and refection; and the workshops were built around in-class exercises, presentations and feedback mechanisms. Classes were supplemented by physical, printed and electronic learning materials and resources. Student had to complete a range of challenges, two of which counted as assessment items for the course: a draft enterprise proposal The Co-opolis brief (opposite) was the thematic scope for the Entrepreneurship Lab and provided the context in which to direct innovation. The brief asked students to focus on entrepreneurial solutions for communities adapting to rapid urban transformation. In particular, projects should focus on the the celebratory and inspirational interventions that bring a human element of hope into lifestyle and city design. Under new conditions, human social habitation patterns adapt or regress. The challenge for entrepreneurial design is a human light. In various scenarios in Australia and Japan students examined the community conditions with extreme urban recovery and in urban decline. They used creative design processes to listen to and observe the complex forces that affect human interaction. Working in mixed teams, students proposed design innovations and business models that span architecture, industrial design, urban planning, social media, business, engineering, information technology and the arts. Some images from their collaborations on site in Japan are followed by the four enterprise proposals: QuickFox, Thrive, S2S, and Live Hive.

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CO-OPOLIS

Innovations for communities adapting to shifting urban conditions; questions of human dynamics in Dalian, Fukushima, Sydney and Newcastle.

RAPID URBAN TRANSFORMATION IS THE DOMINANT PARADIGM OF THE CURRENT GENERATION. IN CHINA, CITIES ARE MULTIPLYING FAST. IN JAPAN, REGIONAL CITIES ARE SHRINKING AND RECOVERING FROM MASSIVE DISASTER. IN AUSTRALIA, CITY CORES ARE DENSIFYING AND CITY FRINGES CONTINUE TO SPRAWL. SOMETIMES URBAN CHANGE CAN BE DISASTROUS, AS SEEN IN THE TSUNAMI THAT HIT FUKUSHIMA; SOMETIMES CHANGE CAN BE HIDDEN YET EQUALLY AS THREATENING OVER TIME, AS SEEN IN THE URBAN DENSITY CRISIS IN SYDNEY. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE HUMAN ELEMENT WITHIN THESE FORCES? WHEN THE CITY MOVES FROM BENEATH US, OR WE ARE PLACED INTO A NEW SOCIO-ECONOMIC PARADIGM, HOW DO WE ESTABLISH FAMILIAR WAYS OF INTERACTING LOCALLY AND BEYOND? WHAT ARE THE INNOVATIONS THAT TRANSFORM THESE CONDITIONS?

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The contextual brief taken on in the Entrepreneurship Lab, CO-OPOLIS.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

SYDNEY COMMUTERS DRIVE REGULARLY WITH EMPTY SEATS IN THEIR VEHICLE, UNWILLING TO SHARE CAR JOURNEYS WITH STRANGERS...

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how might we change perceptions in the community to enable ride sharing amongst commuters?

quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL

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M4 traffic at 6Pm.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Introduction. Transportation in Sydney is one suregesticulating wildly amid much bemoaning. Guests are likely to complain about public transport, cost of parking and fuel prices,

To address this issue what we need to do is TO change perceptions behind the behaviour of Sydney’s car commuters. It’s no small matter, let me tell you…

if your guest happen to live in outer Sydney, where public transport options are limited, slow or expensive. The outcome of a broken transportation system is a city choked with

to increase by over 40% in the next 10 years, the economic, social and environmental costs to Sydney will top $20 Billion a year. It’s time to do something about Sydney’s commuter transportation system! Fundamental to this issue is the 80% of peak hour vehicles containing just one person. This translates to over 5 Million daily empty seats travelling to just a few major commercial hubs. In today’s environment of scarce resources this represents an enormous waste.

Empathetically understanding urban issues. A series of empathy exercises sought to uncover key sustainability issues in Sydney, understand how people are affected, and to develop possible solutions. To kick-start the process the team interviewed inner city workers and residents. Sydney’s transportation system was an overwhelmingly recurrent theme. Commuter’s dissatisfaction with transportation, with its inconvenience, high expense and disastrous effects on quality of urban life. With the outcomes of this empathy work, the team developed an empathy map for a Sydney commuter. Commuters are time poor, dislike public transport, seek convenience, desire transparency and feel high cost of living. Commuters see mundaneness and status quo in their commuting options. They regularly hear from others concerns about environment, a dodgy economy, and increasing cost of living.

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL what do I say and do? skepticism routine/set habits tell others about health/ sustainability improvements

what do I think & feel? time poor dislike public transport need convenience transparency desired costs increasing

what do I see?

concern about environment dodgy economy uncertainty about the future

Oh what a pain e.g. transport,food & resources unpredictability

what we’d like to gain?

Outcome. Having Sydney’s transportation system as a dominating theme, the result of our interviews highlights Commuter’s dissatisfactions with transportation, with its inconvenience, high expense and disastrous effects on quality of urban life especially of Sydney CBD workers and residents.

EMPATHY MAP 129

hear from others?

mundaneness no other option than status quo

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Intuitive ideation. Armed with masses of empathy data, a number of ideation sessions saw an emergent solution. Why not somehow connect singular car commuters together to share car commutes. Such a simple idea, yet underserved in Sydney. Particularly odd given well established operators in North success.

How to crack this nut? Once again the team sought empathy-driven insights. Getting to the root cause. So the problem is a curly one that noone else has yet been able to crack. Although singular car commuters face long, lonely journeys with mounting monetary and environmental costs, most commute to work with empty seats in their vehicle, unwilling to share car journeys with strangers. Therefore, what we are fundamentally looking at is how we might we change perceptions and behaviours to enable journey sharing amongst singular car commuters. Continuous feedbackâ&#x20AC;Ś fundamental to good design. A series of focus groups dug deeper into the barriers behind the behavioural norms of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car commuters. The result exposed a prevalence of extreme users including people with strong positive or negative opinions of sharing car journeys. However, more middle ground emerged around people who were enticed by potential cost savings, added convenience, and/or environment motivations. Critically, almost all respondents expressed a concern for personal safety, to differing degrees.

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s think about this. Taking inspiration from developed in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus, hinged on community social capital of individuals, a further ideation session highlighted trust factors that could be used to deconstruct a feeling of strangeness between two unbeknown people. A number of criteria were developed including socio-demographic background, education, family, profession, appearance, friend network, third party recommendations, vehicle model and many others. This led to a solution containing online persona developing tools,

Deep ideation, contemplation and selfBut yet there was still a major missing link. How to get people from connecting in the virtual world to connect in the physical world. Activity in cyberspace can be non-committal Internet-based companies the world over have struggled to overcome this gap. This led us to isolate and consider the main drivers behind the emotion of security or insecurity. Why do we feel more safe at night if there is adequate street lighting, or reassured if there are other people nearby even if they too are strangers. Humans have an innate need for certainty and transparency. When you purchase something you want to know what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to get. When you get on a bus you know it will take you. Typical ridesharing systems lack these elements, relying on the This has not and will not work for mass markets in Sydney. Fundamental to our solution is creating a bridge between the virtual world and real-world, creating a convenient, controlled and transparent system. 131

source. Along with the ability to pick ride share companions

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB ONDAY MORNING

PLEASE... TRAFFIC...

YES! TRAFFIC IS LOOKING GOOD TODAY!

BE KIND TO ME TODAY...

AND SUDDENLY...

ANOTHER DAY IN THE OFFICE...

IM ON A TIGHT SCHEDULE AS IT IS ALREADY. WHO AM I KIDDING..

STUCK IN TRAFFIC AGAIN! GOING TO BE LATE FOR WORK AGAIN!

EP BE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK... DEFINATELY FIRED NOW....

CHECK OUT THIS DOUCHE,

EANWHILE...

HIMSELF.

WOOO!! I LOVE THIS T2 LANE!!!

I FEEL HIM MAN. THAT USE TO BE ME, TILL I STARTED RIDE SHARING.

I NEED TO GET ME SOME OF THAT...BUT...

MOVE!!!

PRETTY SEROIUS. LETS GET HIM TO RIDE WITH US & EXPLAIN THE BENEFITS OF RIDESHARING!!

SHARING WITH A STRANGER IS TOO WEIRD.

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL

O IT BEGINS...

YO! PULL OVER!

I DONT SO WEIRD...PLUS.. EVEN KNOW YOU COULD BE A YOU!! SERIAL KILLER FOR ALL I KNOW!! WAIT.. IS THIS A TRAP??!!`

VRO

COME RIDE SHARE AND YOU WONT HAVE TO SIT WHAT ARE IN TRAFFIC! ITS BE DOING YOU SCARED ALSO A GREAT YOURSELF AND THE OF?! WAY TO MEET PPL. ENVIRONMENT A FAVOUR!!

OMG! IM GONNA DIE...HELP!!! HMMM...I DONT KNOW MAN. GIVE ME SOME TIME...

GIVE IT A TRY

WELL...

MAYBE

KNOW.. SO...NO MORE TRAFFIC?

HMM...I CAN FINALLY MAKE FRIENDS NOW..

NO MORE ROAD RAGE

I WAS A BIT SKEPTICAL AT FIRST. BUT I TRIED IT AND ITS WORKED OUT GREAT. THATS HOW I MET MY BEST FRIEND OVER THERE!

LIFE WOULD BE GOOD

AND SO AFTER MUCH THOUGHT & CONVINCING DONE BY WILL, TOM FINALLY GAVE IN TO RIDESHARE.HE IS NOW EXPERIENCING ALL THE BENEFITS IT HAS TO OFFER, HE IS NO LONGER ON PROBATION AT WORK, MADE A NEW BEST FRIEND AND ALSO DOING HIS BIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

YO, I NEED A FAVOUR... I NEED YOU TO HELP ME SET UP A BUSINESS...

YOU MIGHT EVEN MEET A NICE GIRL THROUGH RIDESHARE!

MAN THIS IS GREAT!!

SEE I TOLD YOU!!

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TO BE CONTINUED...

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Our solution.

“bridging the gap between virtual world connections and real-world collaborative consumption.” QuickFox is the commuter transportation solution Sydney is crying out for. A bringing communities together to change the sharing habits of Sydney’s car commuters through a convergence of virtual world technology and real-world social space. Firstly, we will create an internet and smart phone application system to maximise convenience and seamless simplicity of use. This includes a dynamic journey booking an automated peer-to-peer cost sharing payments system to seamlessly eliminate cash transactions; while a transparent peer-topeer rating system linked with Facebook will resistance - a customer loyalty program, based on the carbon savings users generate. Genius! A virtual world environment alone will not fundamentally change Sydneysiders’ commuting habits. The QuickFox Hub system will bridge this gap to enable real-world ridesharing. QuickFox Hubs will be cool, convenient locations where riders and drivers meet, connect and commute together. These physical spaces as point-to-point journey pick up and drop off locations will provide the transparency and certainty needed to develop trust between customers. 134

quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL bringing community together... QuickFox Hubs will enable the creation of a ridesharing community in Sydney by bringing community together, providing a space for likeminded people to connect. It is a platform for the public to physically feel, touch and experience the concept of sharing.

COMMA PLATFORM

HUB The hub-to-hub system is simple... requiring QuickFox journeys at another. Customers simply check in at the start and check out at the end.

HUB PHYSICAL

HUB

A key feature of QuickFox is the use of a hub-to-hub system, creating the

link between virtual world connections and physical space...

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VIRTUAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Our vision entails QuickFox Hubs located throughout Sydney’s major commuter suburbs and in major commuter destinations such as CBD fringes. QuickFox Hubs will bring life to un-used public spaces with semi permanent structures constructed from sustainable reused materials. Plus, QuickFox Hubs will be focal points of ridesharing advocacy in the public arena and build a visible community of likeminded responsible commuters. QuickFox will be a community transportation system like nothing else ever seen before. A truly unique solution for an independent, individualistic and innovative city. It’s time to get excited!

DRIVER MATCH

ING

MATCHING

PASSENGER

dATABASE

QUICKFOX SYSTEM

HUB

RATING

quickfox hub system is envisaged to connect fellow ridesharers (passengers and drivers) through a database and physical sharing hub

HUB

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL

PARRMATTA 21,153

NORTH SYDNEY 51,998

SYDNEY CBD 78,204

average single car journeys destination per day in 2010 (figures are projected from the australian bureau of statistics)

36,867

46,507

Penrith

Hornsby

62,363

Blacktown

Parramatta

30,560 22,721

Ryde 34,885

Fairfield

6,218

Strathfield 23,375 34,674

Randwick Bankstown

59,090

Sutherland ShirE

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average single car journeys per day from 10 top SUBURBS in 2010 (figures are projected from the australian bureau of statistics)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Our design proposal. The Quickfox hubs is aimed to integrate a physical place that are both interactive and informative amongst the ride sharer community communication and networking between commuters and the community. Openness, accessibility, transparency and environmentally sustainable design are keys in designing our hubs.

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quickfox - RIDESHARE PROPOSAL

“our design proposal stresses to create open, easy to access and transparent hubs.”

INFO. PICK UP/DROP OFF

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LOUNGE

It is a place not only for the rideshare services, but it is also a platform to promote the idea of share, improve communication between people and build the network for people.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Supported by a strong, viable business model The innovative QuickFox virtual/real world concept is strongly substantiated by an equally innovative business model. Featuring revenue generation through carbon savings and business outsourcing allowing maximise core competency focus.

Key Partners

Organisations e.g. universities & large businesses Local Councils State Government Hub Operators Technology platform provider

Cost Structure

Fixed cost structure with low marginal cost of additional customers

Key Resources

Strategy & leadership Marketing, PR Web development & design Customer relationship management/ development Hub structures Outsource technology, hub construction and hub operation

Revenue StreAms

Consumer membership fees Prepaid credit - reinvestment & expiry Sale of carbon offsets/ credits

Distribution Channels

Personal selling to organisations Internet, mobile apps direct to consumers

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quickfox - RIDE RIDESHARE SHARE PROPOSAL

Peer2peer internet platform provider Marketing, promotion, PR Gvernment advocacy

Value Proposition

To create a rideshare community that is convenient and transparent A hub-to-hub system backed by seamlessly integrated environment

Customer Relationships

Mostly automated hands-off online customer relationships Customer loyalty program Infrequent customer contact through hub employees

Customer Segments

Singular car commuters Cost savings, convenience, responsible living identity

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Key Activities

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL

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HRIVE

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

Workers are spending too much time and resources commuting to and from work everyday.

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL

future of

How can we transform the local libraries and influence

future work practices

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in order to encourage people to work from their local area, saving them time and resources from long commutes?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB We found that too many workers who live in the outer suburbs of Greater Sydney, are spending too much time and resources in petrol when driving to and from work in Sydney’s CBD everyday. After initially exploring ways in which we could encourage drivers to use more sustainable two-wheeled vehicles (such as scooters), we then took a step back and thought about how we could save them from the long drives altogether, in order to help alleviate the issue of PEAK OIL. This led to the idea of giving workers the opportunity to work from their local area. People working from home (TELECOMMUTING) is no longer

Brainstorming one of the main concepts behind the benefits for our potential user groups. The idea that by using our local THRIVE co-working spaces, we are giving people back their “TIME” that they’ve saved from commuting.

Brainstorming the transformation of the local library to incorporate co-working spaces. Mind mapping the local library’s adaptive re-use and the benefits for our potential user groups.

new. “Telecommuting has been embraced by an increasing number of companies in Australia primarily as a means of reducing the overheads (Louisa Heam, Sydney Morning Herald 2006) Many small business owners also work from home due to the high cost of commercial real estate. But to work completely from home also bears many issues to do with isolation, lack of social interaction, lack of professional space and more. This led to the idea of local co-working spaces strategically placed in outer suburbs and regional areas, in order to DE-CENTRALIZE a percentage of the workforce.

Currently, co-working hubs only exist in centralized areas such as CBD’s. In looking at local councils, we saw an opportunity to use the concept of COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION by incorporating co-working spaces within local council libraries. We envision that this will transform the future of local council libraries and also bring back the original concept of a library – which is not only to be a book storage facility, but a place of knowledge, culture and social activity for its community.

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL Mind mapping of the ideation process dealing with the POINT OF VIEW STATEMENT and PROBLEM STATEMENT. PERSONAL TRANSPORT SYSTEM

CONGESTION PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM

HOW DO WE GET PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR CARS?

NORTH

IDENTIFY SUBURBS

EAST

WEST

DE-CENTRALISATION SOUTH

LOCAL COUNCIL SMALL BUSSINESS OWNERS

LOCALISATION

INTERVIEW LOCAL PARKS

LIBRARIES

CBD BUSINESS PEOPLE STUDENTS

LIBRARY SPACE

USE OF EXISTING SPACE

COMMUNITY CENTRES

REVITALISATION

PUBLIC WORK SPACE

SHARED STUDIES

SOCIAL MEDIA

INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY COLLABORATION

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SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Ideation of the concepts and issues that we are dealing with in our proposed business.

COLLABORATION KNOWLEDGE (SOCIAL)

BRINGING GLOBAL LOCAL

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE + REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PEAK OIL

MOBILE KNOWLEDGE WORKER

CONVENIENCE

WORK ENERGY

EFFICIENCY

TIME

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL

FUNCTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE COMMUNITY FROM TRANSACTION TO SERVICE

FROM BOOKS TO PEOPLE

ROLES OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES

EVERY AREA IS DIFFERENT SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

CULTURAL

PURPOSE

KNOWLEDGE

REVITALISATION

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SOCIAL INTERACTION

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Persona 1

Home

Persona 1 Lives in Castle Hill, New South Wales to Mr Persona 1 Born on September 2

Office Worker, Large Corporation Sydney

Married

Persona 1 So tired, I’m stuck in traffic again. Any way to shorten this 1hr drive?

Co-worker Co-worker I agree. Theres got to be a better way :( 10 minutes ago

Co-worker Wouldn’t it be great if we can work close to work? I spent $100 on petrol this week... Yesterday

Persona 1 Persona 1 That would be great! I can spend more time with my family and be able to pick up my kids

Family

Yesterday

Mr Persona 1 Husband

Persona Jnr Son

Persona 1 likes can’t work at home because you get distracted with chores Yesterday

Personarette Daughter

Mr Persona 1 Mr Persona 1 Why don’t you work at the local library? Its close by and you can see our kids! Yesterday

Persona 1 changed her profile picture. Tuesday at 4.50am

Persona 1 is based on empathy interviews of one of our main user groups – employees of large corporations whose headquarters are based in CBDs. These employees are usually based in outer suburban areas and would like the convenience of working remotely a couple of times.

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL Persona 2

Home

Persona 2 Lives in Hornsby, New South Wales Born on July 22

Small Business Owner, Home Net-based Business

In a Relationship

RECENT ACTIVITY Persona 1

Home

Persona Two Lives in Hornsby, New South Wales Born on July 22

Small Business Owner, Home Net-based Business

In a Relationship

“When are you free for our meeting? I have a great idea...” on Contractor’s wall.

RECENT ACTIVITY “When are you free for our meeting? I have a great idea...” on Contractor’s wall.

Persona Two I’m so bored at home! I can’t work alone... I feel so lonely.....

Mr Persona 1 Mr Persona 1 You need to get out more. Why don’t you go to the library? 10 minutes ago

Contractor Mate we need to meet at a proper meeting room. Your coffee table in your garage isn’t big enough. Friends (200) Friend Mr Persona 1

Friend How can you work there? It’s dark and stuffy in there. 10 minutes ago

Contractor Persona Two http://www.notrealcommericalspace.com.au/sydney/haymarket... Friend notrealcommericalspace.com.au www.notrealcommericalspace.com.au Best Location Best view Best space Best everything!!! Buy now!!!

Friend Persona Two Wow I can’t afford that. Lucky I don’t need to be in the city.

:) minutes ago 10

Persona 2 I’m so bored at home! I can’t work alone... I feel so lonely.....

Mr Persona 1 Mr Persona 1 You need to get out more. Why don’t you go to the library? 10 minutes ago

Contractor Mate we need to meet at a proper meeting room. Your coffee table in your garage isn’t big enough. Friends (200) Friend Mr Persona 1

Friend How can you work there? It’s dark and stuffy in there. 10 minutes ago

Contractor Persona 2 http://www.notrealcommericalspace.com.au/sydney/haymarket... Friend notrealcommericalspace.com.au www.notrealcommericalspace.com.au Best Location Best view Best space Best everything!!! Buy now!!!

Friend Persona 2 Wow I can’t afford that. Lucky I don’t need to be in the city. :) 10 minutes ago

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Persona 2 is based on empathy interviews of our other main user group – small business owners who often work from home because they can’t afford the rent on commercial real estate. These small business owners often need a more professional space to work from.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB MAL BOOTH LIBRARIAN AT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY

Before the printing press, the library provided a “store” of both knowledge and culture and access to share within the community

Now we’re rediscovering that purpose to provide both knowledge and culture, but also to enhance the library as a social space – it now has 3 elements – SOCIAL, CULTURE and LEARNING

If libraries are to continue their role in engaging in culture and social activity, as well as knowledge and learning, the spaces need to be dominated not by books, but by people

Library collections have grown so vast that they have essentially become book storage facilities

Somehow we need to figure out a model that takes the books away from dominating the books at the facility and having the people at the periphery, to allowing the people to become the centre of the library

Libraries are looking for ways to engage with their community, to contribute to sustainability and to reducing carbon footprint

Examples: p #SJUJTI -JCSBSZmT l#VTJOFTT BOE *OUFMMFDUVBM Property Centre’ p 4UBUF -JCSBSZ PG 2-%mT OFX GBDJMJUZ l5IF &EHFm

These examples provide access to spaces and collaborative focus spaces Background empathy research interviews conducted in order to gain a better understanding of Key Stakeholders. Mal Booth was interviewed for his expertise on libraries.

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL LISA ANDERSEN SENIOR PRODUCER, EMPTY SPACES PROJECT, UTS SHOPFRONT COMMUNITY PROGRAM

local libraries have been trying to reinvent themselves and are not empty spaces.

the concept of a co-working space in a local council library would be appropriate if it was about community and cultural development or social enterprise development.

Libraries have been trying to keep up with being information hubs and staying up-todate with their online presence. In terms of councils thinking it through in terms of planning: - Councils should identify where the small-to-medium enterprise activity could potentially cluster in their local area. - Eg. Metropolitan areas exist because businesses cluster. - Another example: almost all high end creative industries in Australia are located on the boundaries of the city.

The concept enables companies to connect via ICT rather than face-toface. New ICT is a real chance for more regional areas to think about how they can support (sector clustering and start ups).

A council specific example: Canada Bay Council: p )BT BO FNFSHJOH QSPEVDUJPO JOEVTUSZ JO UIBU BSFB p 5IF DPVODJM JT MPPLJOH UP TVQQPSU UIF DMVTUFSJOH BOE FNFSHFODF PG UIBU TFDUPS XJUIJO UIFJS CPVOEBSJFT

The concept of a regional cluster is â&#x20AC;&#x153;top downâ&#x20AC;?, but will depend on whether an area can support it.

Federal government has a decentralization strategy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Federal government should be approached with the concept.

The role of a library is bringing global knowledge at a local level. 153

Lisa Andersen was interviewed for her expertise on local councils and planning departments.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Background Research. Research was conducted to who travel to the CBD to work. From this, Hornsby was further investigated and was chosen to the focus location. Precedent studies of existing libraries show how and revitalise these dying buildings.

Areas of Residence for workers in City of Sydney 1- Sydney 2- Randwick 3- Sutherland Shire 4- Marrickville 5- North Sydney 6- Waverley 7- Hornsby 8- Leichardt 9- Woollahra 10 - Canterbury

87.1%

12.9%

Residential Location of Workers in City of Sydney Live and work within the City - 46,272 Live outside but work within the City - 311,506

65.2%

7.4%

27.5%

5 8

Employment Location of Residents from Hornsby Shire

9 6

4 10 2

Work Outside the Shire - 49,550 Work Within the Shire - 20,550 Work Location Unknown

Number of Workers

> 16,750 12981 - 16,750 11,491 - 12,980 < 11,490

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL

This library represents a source of inspiration, where the the space within and its context is intergrated within each other. The unique spaces created through the different levels creates personal sanctuaries for its users. THe use of natural elements in the building, ambience of natural light and the framing of the natural landscape all synthesise a space of inspiration. The library is free of over complication and reduced to the roots of its purpose.

Kanazawa Umimirai Library -Kazumi Kudo and Hiroshi Horiba This library shows how the space can be utilised by the whole community, creating a new hub for social and human communication. This library moves its focus from books to the actual users and creates space to cater for them and not just a storage for books. This new knowledge center is a place where people can immerse and contribute to the ever growing knowledge and information through collaboration.

Sendai Mediateque -Architect Toyo Ito This library represents the evolution of its purpose, releasing it from it’s century old stereotype. It is a social media hub where it purpose built for its community. It combines many programs and along with the spaces and vast facilities available, it expands the boundaries of the library. It allows people to come and immerse in the vast media and information in multiple mediums. The library becomes the new ‘heart’ of the community.

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Liyuan Library -Architect Li Xiaodong

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Design Concepts. The idea of revitalising the library through our concept of utilising the space for workers has lead us to several design ideas. We also discovered there when designing spaces for different libraries. The follwoing ideas are based on Hornsby Central Library. The First design concept repurposes the existing space within the library. As society progresses, their needs are constantly changing and the space within the library should evolve to cater for these needs.

Creating these work spaces require spaces for collaborative work as well as individual work. Also adapt to changing programs within the space. This observation lead to extendable walls which can create spaces of different size to cater for these needs. One idea is depicted on the opposite page and below, which shows the renovation of the existing library space to install these extendable green walls. Another variation creates attachable modules onto the side of the library. This

allows the extension of personalised space. These would be purpose built for the local workers within the community and have similar functions of the idea above. The concept shown on the opposite page is one representation. The addition â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;personal green spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the second level. These spaces are for inspiration as well as collaboration.

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL Design parameters for our patented modular coworking spaces with integrated multi-use furniture and equipment include:

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i. Modular and replicable ii. ‘Plug & Play’ extension to an existing library structure iii.Sustainable – use of lighting and ventilation iv. Innovative multi-use furniture and equipment integrated in the space v. Reduce signage – use design to set the mood vi. Inspiring vii.Comfortable

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB key partnerships

suppliers of modul ar coworking spaces

local go vern m

ent

communit Groups

ing franchis ion associat

key activities

identify high priority locations

it support partner

value propositions website platfor bookings and membership

ent developm d ar d n ta s of ing co-work spaces

reduced carbon footprint

networking and marketing

reduced costs

key resources

brand image

franchise kits/training operations and it support

cost structure

hr departments in corporates

fit out costs

r&d

operational costs g

marketin

coll aborative work environment

design team

finance insistution

investors

inspirational work space

more efficient work time

federal government

National and multinational corporation

reduced need for leased space

it costs

give back time wasted in travel per day

co operative working thru member groups

revenue strea capital investment

d facilities an equipment e maintenanc

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thrive- future localism PROPOSAL customer customer relationships relationships n of otion of promotprioom membership membership s rvices servicese

isee anschisees franchfr and and (library(lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sibraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ls)uncils) councico individual individual members members

promotion promotion of of member member brand brand

e rate corporat corpo members members

local local mmunity commun coity ions atga nizations organiz or

channels channels hip hip member msembers

refresref res hmen t hment services services t oject oj otecpr pilot prpil

web web marketma ingrketing

printing printing services services frequen frtequent user user

e hr atrp orate hr corporco ceceto face face tofafa rtments pats setings departm deen meeting me

streams ams

booking booking fee fee

rentalrental royalties royalties

carboncatarbx on tax credit credit member me shmb ip ership promopro motions tions frequefr ueer ntequs nt user links links

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customer customer segments segments

The Thrive business model is based on a franchise model, where local council libraries will be the franchisees with no upfront costs. We will be offering our services to commuter towns within the perimeter of city centres. The franchise fee will be waived at the initial phase in order to increase the incentives for the early adopters and get them on board. The renovation or construction of the space into a THRIVE facility will be shouldered by the franchisee at cost. We would want the franchisee to have a sense of ownership in this facility and maintain a professional relationship as partners of THRIVE. Revenue will come from our users (for example, small business owners and corporate employees) who will become members that pay to use the space. Majority of the proceeds of the revenue from each THRIVE facility will go to the franchisee, while paying forward a percentage as royalties to the franchiser. As the franchiser, THRIVE will be responsible for the central infrastructure, systems and support, which will require initial capital investment from external investors.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL

161

project s2s

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

There are three primary colors in the world blue, red and yellow. When these three colours mix, it becomes a beautiful range of colours that an artist can use to paint onto an canvas. Simply because, there are more options, more variety and a greater opportunity to be more expressive. 162

s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL

THERE IS A INFLUX OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ARRIVING IN SYDNEY UNIVERSITIES. HOWEVER, INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ARE HAVING TROUBLE MIXING AND SETTLING IN AUSTRALIA. HOW CAN WE FIND WAYS TO SATISFY THEIR SOCIAL NEEDS TO EXPERIENCE A BIGGER AUSTRALIA?

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project Strategy: Australia is the perfect canvas for a multi-cultural demographic to be colorful, expressive and actively interactive.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB “International students enrich Australian communities, bringing energy, diversity and new ways of seeing things... Education is now Australia’s third biggest export sector, generating $18.6 billion in 2009 and supporting approximately 125,000 jobs Council of Australian Government, 2009, International Students Strategy for Australia 2010-2014, p.5)

Accommodation financial hardship

i dont know english

social isolation group work

no engagement with local student

no time

no night activities

language barrier communication

i dont know how to be more interactive

“Before, I came here I considered myself quit talkative and outgoing and I thought I could meet a lot of friends... I wanted to meet more friends, but when I came here I found that other students they come in the groups with a similar nationalities... even we are

“I’m feeling very, very lonely sometimes. What Irealised after I came, is that after your class everyone goes their separate ways, so I dont really have a lot of friends. The people are very nice, in the uni and shared house they will smile and talk to you, but I think that is where they draw the line, they don’t want anything more they don’t want to hang

“Perhaps it is because cultural difference or different language... local students here like to go clubbing, but this is not our culture. In Hong Kong we would go to cafe. We have a special cafe culture in Hong Kong with nicely decorated rooms where youngsters gather and social. We can hang out there until 3am. It is not about dringking it’s more about socialising and talking, getting to know each

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL Issues and Challenges. When asked about the experience of being studying in Australia, the issues and challenges can be generated hardship, public transport, employment, and concerns about their safety. Other with government/public services (immigration), lack of support, expensive of non-existent university facilities, culture shock, lack of information available, and general and mental health. (Sandra Turcic, 2008-08, Project Report - â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Needs Assessment of International Student in the City of Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the City of Sydney, p.10)

feeling of isolation

ctio

era

int

Communication

VS. n

ctio

era

int

actually relevant in this society and culture

feeling of belonging

}

activities mixing

Communication

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actually relevant in this society/culture

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Communication. Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender’s intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender.

! face-to-face contact

physical interation

smoking zone

wow lecture series

forced interaction

interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion with a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household…

urban environment

communication building typology

community space

interaction

lifestyle sharing

culture sharing activity mixing

interactive space- public

cyber/ internet interaction

Community Space. The term ‘community’ can

urban density

visual attraction

interest/ attraction

language mixing

In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participant and their degree of cohesiveness (Wikipedia: Thus, community space is the place where the human interaction and communication happened. In Australia, this multi-culture country, a well-designed community space should make its people to share lifestyles, backgrounds and cultures, and mix activities and communicating and interacting. For universities and local to build up the well-designed community space for involving foreign students into this country. On the other hand, a well designed community space should not only contribute to its residents, but also the surrounding environment, urban contact, and even urban density.

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL Design Proposal. Our vision for sydney is a highly multicultural environment where DNA in the urban city. Our design strategy to achieve this notion of ‘active mixing’ is through intervention and rethinking space - mixed used typology and ‘cross programing’ of the programe of the space.

active mixing cross programing

typology building intervention

physical space mixed used interactive

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2011

a th des a in t ign to wi th ll stra e gr te fu ow g tu o y re rg a

space intervention

ni ca

ll y

2050

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB “Interactive Pavilion” - 2012 Vision. Each modules acts as multiple function such as furniture, structure, stairs, window and outside space. The intervention act like a ‘trigger’ and a ‘clue’ for interaction.The space also include a cafe, which include features such as sustainable green garden. Boxes can be rented out for commerical advertising on its facade. All space need to be actived by events. The space act as a social translator which faciliates language learning exchange workshop, group study space, public lecture. Moreover, these spaces can also hold up events, such as outdoor cinema, social functions and exhibitions.

PUBLIC

LOCAL STUDENT

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

essentially this is our intervention

SPACE + EVENTS IC

urban translator informal group study hub urban stage

LOCAL STUDENT

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL powerhouse museum

citigate hotel abc

io ent erv int

new student housing

dab central station

The structure will create a new entrance to the building. Making the entrance more inviting and interactive.

The location of this space intervention will be the new entrance to dab building and student housing entrance.

language exchange workshop commerical advertising

public lecture series

group study session

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structural support

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB “Student House Typology” - 2025 Vision. In Australia, International student is a huge group as resident of this country. Then, how can we provide a better living environment form of the building can shape human’s behaviours and their minds. Space supports the behaviour of human being who are in that space. It also service natural behaviours, such light, wind, heat, water and so on (Atorie Wan, 2010, Behaviorology, Japan). On the other hand, the environment and urban density. For residential building designs, we have basically three building types: house, units, and apartment. Each of them has their features.

urban contact vertical spaces good living conditions (havc) feeling of peace interactive garden feeling of home

urban density lower cost compact secure

green; feeling of nature sunlight, nature ventilation interaction communication personal garden

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL House + Apartment. to their residents, it there a way to create a new housing typology providing all those advantages to people, especially for international apartment typology. Designing the community space, creating personal green space, arranging each individual â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and sharing the common facilities or spaces will be the keys to make active and culture mixing happened in the new student housing typology.

vertical garden ? compact design ? lower cost ? feeling of home ? living conditions ?

interaction ? communication ?

+ house

apartment

box in box ???

Accommondation

171

Community Space

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Type “Box in Box”. vertical community spaces into the student housing to provide a well-designed platform for active and culture mixing, so that, to break down the isolation and to increase the interaction. Secondly, the be applied into the typology design, to enhance the communication and interaction between foreign students and local students. Lastly, as a nice building typology, it should well consider the living conditions, such as

natural daylight, ventilation, rainwater collection, thermal impact and even urban contact. As a result, “Box in Every single two level individual green garden. These small garden together will become a interactive community space. And the central elevator will connect these vertical spaces. In addition, individual kitchen and dinning spaces will be removed. Instead of them, the public kitchen and dining space is designed.

URBAN CONTACT sUNLIGHT CIRCULATION elevator WIND FLOW RAINWATER

kitchen/dinning

BedROOM/TOILET(2 LEVELS) indoor interactive space

Ground OPEN AREA

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL

single linear face-face face-face llinear

vertical

dislocation

173

dense

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

174

s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL Ideation. MEETING PLACE

PUBLIC LECTURE

THIS IS AN AMAZING PLACE TO MEET

GROUP STUDY

HELLO, HOWS ASSIGNMENT

EATING PLACE

READING SPACE

HEY WATS THAT

FLAT SURFACE

PLACE TO STUDY GREEN SPACE PLACE TO EAT STORAGE? CLIMABLE WALL

PLANTS POSSIBLE GROWING INTO A BIGGER THING. STUDY TABLE SELF PROMOTING TABLE INSTALLATION LEARNING EXCHANGE

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Iteration.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB key partnerships

- university - city council - goVERnment - company - immigration

key activities

- constant lobbying - advertising - intellectural

value propositions

- student housing typology

key resources

- materials - man power - construction film - university council

cost structure

- credit card - online transfer - investment cost

revenue str

- master card - b-pay

- stu - fun - lob

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s2s - STUDENT housing typology PROPOSAL customer customer relationships relationships

- survey (online) (online) ng - survey - student - student services services - security - security

customer customer segments segments

- international - international student student - environment - environment - university - university - communication - communication - public - public - local - local student student

channels channels

- website - website - advertisement - advertisement - education - education agents agents - face - face to face to face

reams e streams

udent - student rentrent nding - funding from from student student bbied - lobbied company company

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Business Model Canvas

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

Neighbours ›

a word that conjures up images of memorable times or awkward moments, it brings up a diverse range of emotions.

›

Amongst a number of community based initiatives along with higher urban density, coupled with social media and greater cultural diversity and acceptance, it is surprising that many residents still do not interact with their neighbors.

›

Based on this insight, we developed the idea that Sydney’s residents in its suburban areas need to talk to one another again helping build a sense of a connected community. Our aim was to deliver a solution that would provide opportunities for neighbors to talk with one another through an interactive space.

›

With up to $30,000(AUD) being offered to organizations by a variety of councils for activities building stronger communities and bringing people together, the effort of councils is commendable however the return is on such initiatives is drastically limited. We wanted to help councils realize that their efforts and resources should not be in vain, but there are solutions that can actively build on the aims they have proposed.

a person living or located near another.

performed by the Dixie Chicks and released in 2007. serving Fountain and Warren counties in Indiana, founded 1851. of neighbour.[US] to each other on the roulette wheel. [casino] by God. We love God by loving them. [Bible] to the same physical or logical link. [IPv6]

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL

Neighbors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Empathy: What do neighbors want? Delving into how and why neighborsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; reluctance to talk with one another are already a number of initiatives, places, and

activities that connect individuals with one another. amounts of money and resources encouraging communities to look after themselves from within. Social media helps connect individuals with very specialized wants while encouraging membership and participation. Amongst this and participation, it was clear that most residents had the ability and capacity to interact. However, it was still puzzling to us why residents were reluctant to talk with the very people

they shared a space almost 12 hours of their life with everyday for weeks, months or even years on end. We began with some empathy work to help understand the key concerns of neighbors for avoiding contact with each other. At various BikeTanks organized by ulab, we explored the issues that faced neighbors via three custom-designed prototypes. The feedback we received highlighted some interesting aspects of how people view interaction with their neighbors.

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Simply spending money in the hopes that organizations will foster the necessary impetus for neighbors to talk with one another is not enough, it is time to take the solution directly to the neighbors and bring back a stronger community.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB There are three main trends that emerged from the empathy work: 1. Some people were extremely concerned about privacy when it comes to sharing with their neighbors, and their homes may not be the most appropriate place for this category of users. However, many seemed keen to share a cooking session in their own kitchen with neighbors. They wanted the privacy of the home to remain private suggesting the need for a space that was much more open and communal in nature.

2. Existing space such as cafĂŠs, gyms and pools, when they are meant to be shared by a building or a neighborhood are adequate space to start or continue community building and make neighbors talk to one another. This suggested that the existing community structure may be adequate enough for community based activities. This indirectly meant a space may not have to be at the exact scale of the existing infrastructure.

solutions (e.g. virtual networks/physical facility) present pros in term of community building, therefore the most innovative and problem may be to mix the two concepts into a hybrid solution. This was critical in understanding how the have to somehow mix together to form a critical mass for building the community.

Being a combination of architects and business Baptiste and Ying take the common associations that neighbours have for one another. Unfortunately, many of them are not positive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something we want to change.

was not necessarily easy. Something we generalized to how neighbors felt about one another, the inability to they could interact with one another.

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL

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Empathy Interviews with People in their Neighbourhood. A morning full of bubles! Insights have been collected in a cafe in Redfern. ‘Hi, may I steal you a minute?’ ‘What would you change in your neighbourhood in you had a magic wand?’ ...

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB

Prototyping. Building on this feedback, we designed prototypes to explain the conceptual context of Zoo Hive. We wanted to delve into the reasons and factors that were preventing neighbors from talking with one another. Our concepts for prototypes envisioned in the following ideas:

Build-a-friend. This is a prototype showcasing the concept of communication and sharing amongst neighbors in apartment units in Sydney. The aim was to showcase how neighbors could interact with one another within their building based on a shared concept. The context presented to potential users was how you would introduce yourself to a potential neighbor about a common situation or what factors would need to be enabled to bring this sort of interaction to realization.

Intranetwork. This prototype showcased the virtual means through which Zoo Hiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promotion; asking the question what services users would prefer. Also presented the concept of Zoo Hive going on a larger neighborhood scale within Sydney. In addition, we asked the question why residents did not use existing communal spaces such as community centers, etc. Users were interested building enabled Intranet to communicate or using existing social media to improve communication. Some users mentioned that systems were already in place that attempt to connect people (Foursquare). However, they felt that such systems were ineffective.

Feedback: Bringing people face-to-face is great but there are issues with hosting those interactions in personal space. Privacy is important for individuals, not necessarily comfortable sharing everything with total strangers in their own space, but would be willing to do so in a public space.

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Connector

Bric-Ă -brac

Cooling Fan

Trapinator

Shoe box

Sundial

Rackspace

These prototypes detail how a physical space could be envisioned for Zoo Hive. Initial assumption was a virtual or physical solution. However, user feedback told us that users wanted both, a physical and virtual space to interact in. Questions regarding the space being temporary or permanent were raised. We also asked whether the activity within the physical space should be permanent. Users were expecting a physical space that could be brought to their doorsteps to remove the problems of having to travel. They also requested integration of virtual and physical services coordinating with existing social media.

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with the overall concept. We primarily focused on four key areas/questions, “What would neighbors want to ‘live’ they think about when they do they want to share using

Residents shouldn’t have to march to be heard! Everyone’s communicating with everyone, but it seems as if no one is actually listening to one another.

council fees for development and resource usage; why not change what bothered them? On average, the Kogarah Council charges its residents $564 AUD per quarter to provide services to the community. That’s $2,256 AUD per unit in the region with more than 700 individual units. A total of $1,579,200 a year just from one suburb, imagine if it was spread across 4 neighborhoods surrounding a main council, that’s $6,316,800 spent by the council on the neighborhood.

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[Image Left] Some of the brainstorming sessions that focused on what Live Hive wanted to do – we looked at

The dis…connect Clearly this emphasized a communication and action disconnect between what councils were providing and what residents wanted. There were a number of channels through which residents could easily contact councils and talk to them regarding their needs. Councils were receptive and allocating resources to help the community; then why was there a disconnect between residents and councils? Email, social media, phone numbers, regular meetings, community residents in apartment buildings, and a variety of communication tools were available for residents to get in touch with their council and other potential residents in the area. We decided that maybe there was a need to rebrand or rebuild the concept of what a ‘community space’ was meant to do. Currently many of the structures have an image of being considered old, inadequate, and irrelevant places for the community. This was an issue, but something was still niggling us in the back of our minds. Yes, residents were not happy with the current system, but the councils had provided them with spaces, why not revamp them? Almost

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB An iterative process.

bqck to the different users to empathyse and understand their genuine motivation.

Some of our BikeTankers came up with some fantastic ways of pitching novel ideas. One that was discussed during a session was a coffee cart on wheels that moved around the neighbourhood selling coffee. As the coffee cart moved along, it encouraged people to step outside their homes, look around, and talk to neighbours.[Right Image] Having our potential users write about their thoughts and feelings during empathy work helped clarify what we were looking for. Speech bubbles seem to encourage people to express themselves more freely than a traditional interview or questionnaire would. [Right Lower Image]

ID EA TE ID EA TE ID EA TE 190

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Live Shelter. A modular space that incorporates a variety of activities ranging from BBQ to performance art to facilitation spaces for residents to use Live Hive. The open and closed corridors encourage residents to move throughout the space freely and participate in activities.

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL Live Shelter. Our design iterations aimed to provide a community space that facilitated contact. A variety of designs were proposed aiming to provide basic shelter while remaining visually appealing to residents. We felt that the space should feel futuristic and new; symbolizing the growth of a new beginning for Live Hive. Multiple iterations resulted in a variety of shapes and designs being developed for Live Hive. As a group, we experimented with a variety of ideas looking at existing urban communal spaces and how drastically designs had changed serving communal and focused functions. Some of these designs have been shown below as very rough sketches along with

space was critical to Live Hiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s function as a communal area. Here the design aims to guide residents around certain areas without necessarily disturbing their walking path. It encourages movement in and around the space â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something that Live Hive wants to happen naturally without it being forced upon the users.

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Like many ideas for Live Hive, they generally are conceived on paper with funky ideas often being stretched further into proper models. The few ideas here showcase how some spaces could be adapted for the purpose of Live Hive.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wings. One of design iterations focused on curves in an effort to build an organic structure that molds with the environment while still remaining distinctive. Live Hive would be a respite from the traditional angular lines that dominate Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suburbs.

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LIVE HIVE - neighbourhood PROPOSAL Revelation. We prototyped for a number of user groups, the young, the old, the families, the urban professional, we’d just about thought of everyone. It wasn’t working; we were normalizing all the activities into something safe, familiar, and comfortable. One group of people would alienate the other group with their activities. What kind of activities could universally be accepted by all the potential groups yet somehow still be individual and unique? We needed to avoid falling into the traditional trap set by existing community spaces. We could not be just another attempt to ‘reorganize’ community spaces. After burning much midnight oil, it hit us. It wasn’t about the whole community, it was about passion. People that loved what they did regardless of whatever the world thought of them. A

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so fond of their activities, that they weren’t afraid of sharing them online or in the real world. Clearly they existed, but they needed to be brought out of their shell. They were needed to bring the neighborhood together as a community as a whole. It seemed that we might be onto something.

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Entrepreneurship Project Credits: QUICKFOX Jessica Hartany Jigar Patel Ke Da Yan Nathan Wiltshire Quang Toan Nguyen THRIVE Jim Patete Daniel Kim Chang Woo Lee Rosary Coloma Emil del Rosario S2S Zhao Zhang Alan Wang Sutapa Nandy

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LIVE HIVE Baptiste Bachellerie Hui Lin Hasan Kamal Syed Nasser Hussein Ying Su

AFTERWORD

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AFTERWORD Our different disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives have thus far created tremendous opportunities to address complex teaching and research challenges at UTS. By trialling the practices and methods we have introduced in this book again and again, a deep appreciation of it can be used in designing not just new solutions, but new kinds of solutions for complex problems. By continuing to immerse ourselves in each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disciplinary ways, seeing failure with a positive attitude, and having a passion for exploring alternative ways of seeing the world, the u.lab initiative is continuing to open up new ways of thinking within the UTS community, the city of Sydney, and beyond. Our growing u.lab community is about you. Its growth is underpinned by our awareness and understanding that collaboration and engagement are built on trust, respect, and shared ownership - such that disciplinary, organisational, and cultural perspectives are synergistic and inclusive.

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We hope to see you at u.lab!

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u.lab is an initiative by Wayne Brookes, Melissa Edwards, Joanne Jakovich, Julie Jupp, Nathan Kirchner, Natalia Nikolova and Jochen Schweitzer. You can contact us at 3JWN@ulab.org.au Or Share with us at facebook.com/u.lab.UTS http://ulab.org.au

BikeTank is a program of the u.lab. You can email us at biketank@ulab.org.au Or follow us here: http://twitter.com/BikeTank http://biketank.org

Creative Minds

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http://creativeminds.org.au/

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