Creative Community Spaces

Communities of entrepreneurs create positive social, environmental, and economic changes in local communities. Creative community spaces (CCSs), which are physical spaces that encourage innovation by bringing entrepreneurs and start-ups together, are at the center of these changes. This article showcases a selection of 13 CCSs worldwide that contribute to building a sustainable and entrepreneurial community while helping advance industry-specific and sectoral issues. How can creative community spaces support sustainable innovation from the root level? What are some best practices in creating entrepreneurial ecosystems that lead to sustainable innovation and local impact?

Characteristics of Creative Community Spaces

2.1 Methodology

The analysis of the CCSs represented in this catalog focuses on three areas:

  1. the impact the spaces have on the socio-economic urban landscape of cities
  2. their financial models
  3. their operational models 

To analyze the impact that the spaces have had on the socioeconomic urban landscape, a scope-by-impact matrix was introduced. The paper investigates financial models applied by CCSs through two elements: capital expenditure (initial funding) and operating expenditure (revenue) of the spaces. A similar approach was used to examine the spaces' operational models, with interactive environments (that is, the essence of the spaces) and services offered being the elements for analysis. 

In this publication, two approaches were used to effectively identify insights. The scope and impact of spaces were cross-referenced with each element of the financial and operational models individually to examine the characteristics of CCSs. The spaces were categorized using Matrix 2.1, which helped to identify emerging trends across different financial and operations models. Combined, this analysis creates a comprehensive representation of the nature and specifics of these CCSs.