From coworking space to decentralized creative hub for work

The 6-year-story of Toolbox Coworking in Turin

Sara Bigazzi

Let’s cook some of this!

credits fmt.sight14

We first started in 2010 as a 44-workstation coworking space.

1,000 square meters (a pretty big one to start from)

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Then we grew.

Up to 6,000 square meters and more than 300 coworkers.

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

In 5 years

We became the focal point in Turin for the future of work and for

• Freelance culture • Entrepreneurship culture • Cross innovation

• Maker culture • Graphic Design culture • IoT & AI innovation

• Social Innovation • Culture innovation

Local authorities started looking at us as the main partner

to produce innovation-driven content and to get in touch with communities

they are not able to reach.

This is how we did it.

First, with a calendar of events about entrepreneurship, start-up skills, and new technologies

and partnerships with stakeholders such as universities, incubators, work communities, local authorities and non-profit organizations.

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

Then, we understood the importance of cohabitation.

Toolbox Coworking turned into a multicentered structure.

We started hosting communities in our spaces each with their own knowledge, skills, and backgrounds but willing to share and mix with the others.

1 | Fablab Torino / Officine Arduino Digital fabrication laboratory, makerspace and development hub for Arduino board.

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

1 | Fablab Torino / Officine Arduino

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

2 | Casa Jasmina The Open Source way to the connected home:

• A real-world testbed for hacks, experiments and innovative IoT and digital fabrication projects.

• A curated space for public exhibition of excellent artifacts and best practices.

• A guest-house available on Airbnb.

2 | Casa Jasmina

2 | Casa Jasmina

3 | Print Club Torino A print and graphic lab to mix new and traditional technics and experiment with digital and hand-made skills and know-how.

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

3 | Print Club Torino

Photo Credits: Stefano Borghi

4 | DigifabTURINg A research cluster focused on digital fabrication, robotic automation and applied materials research in the field of architecture, interaction design and art.

4 | DigifabTURINg

Simply put, we look like a nice cloud of fried eggs.

By adding communities to the net of people we turned into a creative hub for work,

a larger coworking ecosystem connecting people and communities. ———

Ours was a bottom-up strategy. We created the conditions for the ecosystem to grow autonomously.

——— Living together in the same shared space

makes cross-fertilization easier between coworkers and subcultures.

over 300 events a year

workshops, talks & panels one-to-one tips, meetups

special events

Fablab Torino

DigifabTURINgPrint Club Torino

Casa Jasminahosted events

coworking events

Toolbox Coworking today

300-people community of freelancers, startups, small business

110 different businesses

6,000 square meters

To make our coworking model work, we need:

• A highly diverse professional environment to foster people’s creative ability, business effectiveness, and capacity to innovate.

• A balanced mix between emotional stability and intellectual stimuli.

• A well-developed, interconnected structure with big numbers.

Our takeaways are…

The complexity of today’s world requires a multidisciplinary approach and this means:

• Overcoming the trade-off between arts and science

• Putting software and hardware under the same roof

• Making sure the ingredients can mix well

Our takeaways are…

Hope you like eggs!

toolboxcoworking.com