An interesting new element in the innovation environment of Lahti, a city in Finland close to Helsinki, was introduced yesterday when an ambitious development project called Malski Business and Culture Centre was published. The old and famous Mallasjuoma brewery building located in the centre of Lahti will be transformed into a dynamic innovation environment hosting a variety of actors from diverse backgrounds.

The renovated building will have for instance movie theaters, a dance studio, an art gallery, beautiful loft apartments on the top floor, office space, a vibrant coworking space, a restaurant, a cafeteria and a refreshing sauna department. The building will consist in the final form 9600 m2 and will be completed in winter 2016, although some parts of the centre – like the coworking space – will be operational already in autumn 2015.

Karostech has been involved in the conceptual planning, in the co-creation process with the users and in designing and implementing a state-of the art Malski community support package including a competence platform and dynamic co-working space. These new community building elements are already currently tested in coMalski piloting environment. Karostech’s collaboration with the property owners will continue this year and some exciting new features of serendipity management will also be tested during the implementation process.