Post Date: August 29, 2018 9:06PM
Greetings! Welcome to the official blog of the H3 team working at the WPI Venice Project Center. This year, a new project revolving around the design management of H3, a startup factory operated by SerenDPT, has been assigned to our group. Through our multidisciplinary backgrounds, we will work to turn H3 into a place where innovation is born, and the problems of Venice can be solved and marketed to the world.
This project is being undertaken to assist SerenDPT with the overall management and design of this newly acquired office space. This space, originally the convent of Saints Cosmas and Damian, was then converted to Herion, a garment factory, and a startup factory. Under the direction of SerenDPT, the complex will operate again as a startup factory, with the ultimate goal of solving problems had by Venetians, and then marketing them to other historic cities around the world.
In order to accomplish the goals set by SerenDPT we will have to work as a team and research some of the finest startup and tech companies around the globe. Along the way, we will sharpen skills we already have, and learn many skills we never thought we would need to (I know I already have). We are looking forward to this journey and will be bringing you blog posts during our time in the United States and while we are abroad.
Thanks for checking us out, and we hope you come back soon!
-Alex
Post date: Aug 29, 2018 3:58 PM
Hello and welcome to our project! My teammates and I are working on transforming a former church into a building that can draw in startup companies. These startup companies will then create new businesses for the city of Venice to allow the economy to veer away from its currently unreliable tourist focus. This building has been redesigned two times before our interference with the same goal on creating or fostering startup companies. Since we are the third iteration of this Herion factory, we have earned ourselves the name “H3”.
Our plan is to design this startup factory with an innovative atmosphere that can spur up creative solutions to some of Venice’s problems. To start our project, we will look into the what makes a factory for startups either successful or unsuccessful. We will also learn about style choices that will give the grounds a techy feel that is also consistent to the nearby Venetian buildings. We are brainstorming all potential ideas and directions that we can take in order to make this building exactly what it was meant to be.
The efforts to our project are sponsored by SerenDPT, whom we will give our final proposal to at the end of the project. They are the company that has leased this building for the next nine years with the hopes of having it as a successful startup factory. As far as progress is concerned we are still in the early stages of development, but our team is eager to work on this project and make it as nice as possible.
-Peter
Post date: Aug 29, 2018 7:56 AM
Welcome to the blog of the WPI IQP group working on H3-Venice! Over the course of the next four months we will be periodically creating new posts on this blog to keep you updated on our progress. We will be working hard to coordinate with SerenDPT to organize and plan the H3 building, also known as the former Benedictine Convent of Saints Cosmas and Damian. We hope our plans will result in a well managed startup factory capable of fostering the growth of startups that can help Venice become less dependent on tourism.
For now we are conducting research on what produces effective startup spaces and office spaces in influential organizations or systems around the United States. We are also looking into what will need to be changed from these designs to better fit Venice. Thank you for exploring our team website and feel free to return soon!
-Colin
Post date: Aug 29, 2018 7:56 AM
Welcome to the Venice 2018 H3 Project website! I am Ryan, one of the four third year group members of WPI who are working together for their IQP. This blog will document our journey together from initial planning stages to final implementation in the fall 2018 semester.
Our project focuses on the recently acquired H3 building, the church of the former benedictine convent of Saints Cosmas and Damian on the Giudecca Island in Venice. Our sponsor SerenDPT has leased this building until 2027, and the primary use will be a tech incubator. An incubator is an organization that assists creating startup tech companies from first plans to company founding. The goal of this incubator will be to help create high paying jobs for young Venetians that does not relate to tourism in order to mitigate population decline and increase in poverty in historical Venice. Our project will be to design the H3 building with an innovative layout that is beneficial towards the start up companies and also follows Venetian design style.
While my team has only just met less than a week ago, we have met almost everyday becoming familiar with each other and beginning the research process towards designing H3. We already have an idea of what we want to implement after researching campuses and office layout of existing tech incubators at tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook along with universities. Our team has a significant advantage with language because I currently live in Naples Italy, and have learned Italian for two years in high school and practice almost everyday to the point I have conversational proficiency in Italian.
While we have much work to complete, all of us are very excited to undertake this project and help Venice over this semester.
Ciao!
-Ryan