HUB NEXT LEVEL
Under the fearless leadership of innovative architect Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes and sustainable design expert Melle Koot, the energies of the HUB team and members have been focused over the past two months on co-creating the next-level HUB Amsterdam. With the move to the new space set for the beginning of November, final design plans are imminent. Stephanie and Melle tell us more about the process to date and hint at what’s next.
'What the HUB wanted was collaboration on a huge scale,' explains Stephanie as she gives us the big picture overview of the approach. “The entire community has several moments in the process to engage. At each, we discuss different themes. The first session was more the drawing of a big picture… Gaining insights into everyone’s vision for the next-level HUB. In the second session, we shared a starting direction that that members could alter. They gave insights and input on much more practical things. In the third co-creation session, we’re revealing “This is what the space could look like.” and asking for reactions and input.
The other half of the next level HUB design team is Melle. He describes what makes this process different than others he’s worked on, “Collaboration is something that you do normally if you want to get a kind of benefit in a financial way. But here, a lot of the motivation is about challenging each other. It’s almost a kind of mind game to get the best out of each other and out of the design. Innovation is the driver.” And that’s exciting for Melle. “The HUB is not especially saying this is what I want for this kind of product. They want a kind of atmosphere where things can happen and ideas can pop up. That’s totally different than a normal design process. For me, it’s normal to work this way [on my own]; but to get to do it with other people, that’s rare. I love the adventure of doing this together.”
