Impact HUB Tokyo: Space as the community’s experiment lab

Archive date: June 12, 2018

An open, flexible, and multi-functional space

“People First, Space Later” has been part of the Impact HUB Tokyo’s guiding philosophy since its inception. Though space comes after, it is nonetheless essential. For this post, we’ll explore how the Impact HUB Tokyo approaches the concept of “Space” below.

If you work your way down the slope from Meguro Station, you’ll find an old printing factory hidden in the residential alleys. Without changing the outer walls, Impact HUB Tokyo emerged from the interior renovations, as if it were a secret base or laboratory.

Like many other Impact Hubs across the globe, Impact HUB Tokyo is located at the intersection of residential and business areas based on the belief that vibrant communities emerge through exchanges between local residents and businesses. In addition, to embody the spirit of an organization that adapts to the changing needs of its community, the Impact HUB Tokyo team decided to renovate the paper factory based on their needs rather than doing straight forward building restoration. With unusual requirements for an office space, the founders chose a printing factory a little ways from Meguro Station that met these requirements. The founders decided on the spot to make it the home of their new community and set to work cleaning and painting the factory with the new Impact HUB Tokyo team.

Impact HUB Tokyo has a total of 440 square meters (4736 sq ft). When you open a door, you will be welcomed by the scent of drip coffee in an open area with a spacious kitchen, hotdesks, and lounge area.

On one of the walls, you’ll find photos of members and the latest event information, and to the left of the kitchen there is an event space that can accommodate up to 200 people.

Beyond the kitchen area is a workspace. Inside, there are various meeting rooms, spacious open office desks, and private offices.

All of this is on the same floor, so it’s easy for members to see what’s going on and discover things that pop up. At the same time, the public and private spaces are separated so that members can also have a quiet space to concentrate on their work.

DIY persistence and approaches to change

At Impact HUB Tokyo, most of the furniture is made in Japan, second hand, or refurbished. Rather than buy expensive furniture and say, “We’re done!” with the setup, the Impact HUB Tokyo team was committed to sourcing ethical furniture and giving pieces a second life.

This approach meant that they continued to experiment with DIY furniture that could be easy to use, durable, but also flexible and multifunctional for community use. DIY hacking is a common scene at the space. Since the Impact HUB Tokyo also has a covered parking lot, it has become a DIY hacking space. For example, many ping pong tables were taken apart and made into white boards, which are now essential for daily discussions in meeting rooms.

They were also devoted to making their own desks and chairs. In collaboration with a design company, members volunteered to help make desks that were uniquely shaped so that they could be moved and arranged together. The desks were like an ameba. Rather than being a square shape, each side is angled in the hexagon shape, so that there isn’t one “front” side that members need to sit at. Members don’t need to worry about sensitive work material being seen by someone right behind, while on the other hand they can also conveniently start a discussion.

The lighting has also been considered. Members can adjust lights to different shades and brightness for their area. With the various types of spaces, members can be comfortable and concentrate on their work in their favorite corner.

How space design nurtures impact creation

Even though Impact HUB Tokyo has private workspace, once members join, they eventually move out to the co-working area. So far, our observation is that teams who have moved out to the co-working area have been more successful than teams who have stayed in the private workspace.

One reason could be that interactions with different people leads to new ideas and collaborations, but even more importantly, members can boost morale in their exchanges with others.

Our founders joke that the kitchen area is a hub in the Hub. Members are always gathered around the coffee maker, having random chats with a coffee mug in hand. Just a casual “Coffee’s ready. How about a coffee together?” quickly becomes an intense discussion. Other people who pass by quickly join in and very soon, there’s a full-on meeting in the lounge. That’s a common occurrence. The collaboration at Impact HUB Tokyo happens not in a meeting room, but the open spaces.

The Impact HUB Tokyo’s location and coworking space design was a departure from the typical office spaces available at the time. This design served the Impact HUB’s main thesis that effective impact happens through collaboration.

Revolutions begin in coffeehouses**

The reason Impact HUB Tokyo is committed to creating the right space is because it’s not meant to be just a coworking space for work, but rather a place where positive impact initiatives are born and nurtured.

In his TEDTalk “Where good ideas come from“, American writer Steven Johnson said, “People think that important breakthrough ideas happen by deliberating deeply alone (‘People often credit their ideas to individual “Eureka!” moments’), but actually new ideas happen in places where people from different backgrounds get together to discuss ideas.”

He says that the industrial revolution in England did not succeed without a coffeehouse. “It was a space where people would get together from different backgrounds, different fields of expertise, and share. This is the kind of chaotic environment where ideas were likely to come together, where people were likely to have new, interesting, unpredictable collisions — people from different backgrounds.” He describes this network that produces innovation as a “liquid network”.

If there is a space where diverse people exchange ideas, could there be a continuous flow of new collaborations? From observing how people gather as a community, not everyone joins the same discussion. First, ideas usually take seed from deep discussions we have with a small group of people we’re close to. These ideas get refined as they are taken from place to place and further discussed with new people. It is from collecting these scattered responses that an idea actually emerges into a plan. In order for these many ideas to be actioned by a community, there has to be a “node” to channel people’s passion and create momentum.

The Impact HUB Tokyo takes inspiration from observing its community and experiments with tangible and intangible inputs so that the space can help maximize the outcome of each members’ projects. By doing this day after day, we accumulate “know-how” and can continue to accelerate our speed of innovation by learning from community experience.

This piece is a translation from Impact HUB Tokyo’s original post “Impact HUB Hosts’ Story Vol.1 : 空間は、コミュニティの実験のためのラボ” with permission.

Writer/Editor: Ishikawa Koumei (石川孔明) Translator: Yuki Fujimoto