Objective: incubating new start ups of architecture, design and web content.
Edilportale.com takes up a new challenge and decides to invest in The Hub Bari, the co-working space in which young professionals, freelancers and start uppers share the work environment, but also an innovative idea of doing business. It is a place of working and meeting that leaves space for social innovation, creativity, design and architecture, and where multi-disciplinarity is a necessary condition for the emergence of more complex projects.
Edilportale decided to co-finance the project, thus becoming an active party, with the specific goal of identifying and incubating the most interesting startups in which architecture and design are developed in a web environment and with the help of mobile technology.
“It’s been a year since five guys turned up at our offices and we talked about their idea. They immediately caught our attention, partly because they reminded us of our beginnings, but mainly for their passion in presenting the idea.” This is how the founders of Edilportale remembered the beginning of the collaboration a year later. Among them Vincenzo Maiorano, who adds: “It seemed interesting for Edilportale to invest in a young start-up, especially for the important role that our company could have as a ‘hub’ between the young local freelancers, designers, architects and the companies on our websites. A physical as well as virtual meeting place, which would allow us to gain access to new skills and learn about new projects, both locally and internationally.”
“It was important for us” – said Maurizio Alfieri, another co-founder of Edilportale – “to find a meeting point between architecture, which we represent with Archiportale in Italy, Archiproducts and Archilovers in the world, and start-ups. We, therefore, decided to invest in The Hub Bari. When I was invited to the first ‘start up weekend’ organized in Bari, I was impressed by its ability to attract people even from other regions, and how the space could be a manifold for the young professionals.”
“Having the support of a truly international flavour like Edilportale” – explain the five partners of The Hub Bari – “was a goal that we set ourselves from the beginning, as if it were part of the project itself. It immediately seemed to provide an opportunity, especially for our members involved in design and architecture. We hope to be able to provide Edilportale with a testing ground for new projects, development of partnerships and launching start-ups.”
“The events, the co-working space and our members are the soul of the Hub. And this space means that we can put ourselves forward as a manifold for Puglia but also for the neighbouring regions that do not have spaces like ours. There are different types of membership, from the basic one (Hub connect) of a few hours per month, up to the unlimited time one (Hub unlimited). In addition to using the co-working space, membership gives you access to all the events taking place in our space and to the online platform Hub-Net. The key point is the flexibility of membership, which can be changed whenever you want, from month to month.”
After one year, The Hub Bari is a functional and living space open to many young entrepreneurs, bringing the number of Hubs opened around the world to 35, from London to São Paulo, from Milan to Mumbai. An important result, as well as evidence of the need for places where social innovation can be cultivated.
ABOUT THE HUB BARI
The Hub Bari was founded in March 2011, when five young people – Giusy Ottonelli, Francesco Antonacci, Monica Del Vecchio, Diego Antonacci and Angela Amoruso – came together to share the same business ideals: a collaborative workspace, where innovative projects can be created.
The five co-founders of The Hub have long sought an abandoned public space to recover, with the desire of restoring one of the many abandoned places in Bari to its people. This research seemed at times impossible. That was until the Regional Government, the Independent Authority Fiera del Levante and ARTI signed a memorandum of understanding that gave rise to the announcement of lease of Hall 129 of the Exhibition centre “Fiera del Levante”, which the five participated in and won.
Hall 129 has been completely restored and today, a year later, has become the first co-working space in Puglia.
Info and contacts:
www.bari.the-hub.net | www.facebook.com/Hub.Bari | [email protected] | 080.990.46.80
