BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

Background

Steel House is a coworking space that aims to build a community of students, artists, and designers connecting with and adapting to Rockland's oldest commercial enterprise, fishing. The space's coastal location has allowed Steel House to prototype projects such as submersible ROVs (remotely operated vehicles). The space also permits light industrial applications and flexible programming. The space derives revenue from a range of models: The team offers individual memberships as well as consulting services and events assistance.

In Essence

Steel House positions itself as a collaborative work space, a design and prototyping studio, and an interdisciplinary cultural and educational environment. It has three major areas of focus: educational programs related to design and technology, a collaborative maker space for members, and individual work spaces for start-ups and small businesses. Steel House offers a residency program for artists, designers, technologists, and scientists. The space invites young professionals to spend one to three months in their studio developing a self-initiated project. The residents are invited to collaborate with other members and to use the equipment, and they are asked to devote four hours per week to Steel House projects. Many activities at Steel House engage the city's younger population. For example, its internship program (open to local high school students and recent college graduates) introduces young people to a range of disciplines, from industrial design to letterpress printmaking and computer programming. The interns work side by side with Steel House members, gaining insights into creative and professional practices. Another program, "Multimedia Storytelling," is an after-school, hands-on workshop that introduces students to multimedia production, script writing, camera operation, audio engineering, and video editing, among other things. 

Impact

Steel House is a general space that has an impact in the areas of entrepreneurial communities building and industry innovation. The space provides a wide range of services in design and engineering, but it also capitalizes on Maine's regional expertise by providing fishery-related training. The space's regional focus and attention to youth development have resulted in successful partnerships with the city's public schools. Steel House's model of industry-specific services combined with training in other disciplines is what makes this business model unique and more financially sustainable.

In Practice

Project in Focus

The space interacts with both industry (fishing, in particular) and students to gain and impart digital skills. Two projects showcase Steel House's impact in these two communities:

Local Industry: The space is currently developing a series of submersible ROVs to be used in partnership with local schools and science foundations. While there are many commercially available submersibles, Steel House is interested in inspiring students to design, tinker, and build their own variations based on the space's platform. The student-designed ROVs will be used to explore the marine scene, ecology, and aquaculture in local communities.

Local Students: Tech Club is a weekly gathering of students and adult mentors to explore topics in technology and create technological solutions (both hardware and software) for a wide range of problems and challenges. Past projects have included a machine to convert plastic pellets into 3-D printer filament, a device to alert a homeowner when someone enters their driveway, and an algorithmic generator for mazes in a video game.