Learning spaces as accelerators of innovation ecosystem development 2013

In-depth
Learning Spaces as Accelerators of Innovation
Ecosystem Development
Authors
Markku Markkuola
markku.markkula@aalto.fi
Pia Lappalainen
pia.lappalainen@aalto.fi
Aalto University
Espoo, Finland
Kari Mikkelä
kari.mikkela@urbanmill.fi
Urban Mill Innovation
Platform
Espoo, Finland

Tags
Learning space; Knowledge
Triangle; Innovation
ecosystems; Triple Helix;
Societal impact

This article examines learning spaces as a broad concept, addressing them both as an
abstraction and as venues and facilities supporting learning on individual, organisational
and regional levels. Our two simultaneous perspectives are top-down (Europe 2020
strategy) and bottom-up (learning and innovativeness of individuals). As an abstract
concept, learning space refers especially to the mental dimension of the space emerging
when individual experts collaborate. It draws from the culture of modernising the Triple
Helix collaboration coloring the learning environment, and the quality of interaction
between the classroom and industry agents, either hindering or supporting better
synergy between research, education and innovation, as well as different initiatives
focusing on creativity and entrepreneurial discovery.
In order to boost competitiveness in a global economy, one of the key success factors
is creating effective and inspiring regional innovation ecosystems. These need to be
embedded both through involvement in global innovation grids and through creation
and adoption of local mental, physical and virtual platforms, the innovation gardens
and challenge platform as described in this article.
In the current economy and globalized surroundings, this means that education no
longer focuses on memorization and passive reception; instead, it strives to promote
entrepreneurial discovery and societal impact. To integrate theories into real life
practices, this article also reviews Aalto University experiences within the Helsinki
Region. Our cases focus on Aalto Innovation Garden experiments within the frame of a
research programme Energizing Urban Ecosystems and a new innovation hotspot, the
Urban Mill.

1. Introduction
This article shows that innovativeness can considerably be increased as challenged by the
Europe 2020 strategy and the flagship initiative Innovation Union. This article is based on
one hand on the EU Committee of the Regions opinion “Closing the Innovation Divide”
(Rapporteur Markku Markkula) upon request of the Irish presidency in drawing up proposals
on ways to increase innovativeness and close innovation gaps. On the other hand, we draw
on the different roles and responsibilities of the authors within the Aalto University.
The following statements provide a solid basis for our message and allow us to focus on ways
of accomplishing the desired operational and mental changes in creating innovative learning
spaces (CoR, 2013):

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eLearning Papers • ISSN: 1887-1542 • www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/elearning_papers
n.º 34 • October 2013

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1. Societal challenges cannot be met merely through minor
adjustments and conventional management methods.
Boosting renewal capital is critical to success: creativity,
innovation and the confidence to innovate and reform are
also instrumental for local and regional decision-makers.
2. The focused translation of research into practice requires
a good understanding by researchers, practitioners and
policy-makers of what type of research is being conducted,
what issues are being raised, and how relevant research
can impact local and regional issues. A new kind of
knowledge triangle is needed for this, linking the world
of research and science with the world of business and
government through a two-way mediating service. This
requires further development and active implementation
of the EU Knowledge Triangle concept in strengthening the
societal role of universities.
3. Regions need new arenas as hotspots for innovation cocreation. These could be described as “innovation gardens”
and “challenge platforms”, which together form prototype
workspaces for inventing the future. Such venues have
proved pivotal in addressing challenges of all scales, from
small local challenges to major societal ones at the global
level. Research, development and innovation activities are
therefore required to allow piloting and creating prototypes
of (a) spatial configurations with physical, intellectual and
virtual dimensions, and (b) orchestration and knowledge
management toolkits needed to address challenges.
In sum, we are operating on fruitful ground as many societal
actors have begun to understand the immensity of the societal
challenges and also the fact that tackling them requires more
fundamental measures through research, innovation and
structural changes than taken before. As one, research needs
to be harnessed more effectively than ever to serve society
with outcomes yielding practical value on local, regional as
well as global scales. So-called innovation gardens could then
provide the facilities for increasing innovativeness and verifying
the concrete value. The following chapters describe the
cornerstones in making this innovation garden a reality.

Knowledge Triangle and Learning
The EU through the Council decisions and policy programmes
has stressed the importance of applying Knowledge Triangle
throughout the university sector, EIT European Institute of
Innovation and Technology being the forerunner initiator.
However, the target results can be achieved only if the

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universities on a large scale create new operations increasing
the synergy between research, education and innovation.
The Aalto Teaching and Education Evaluation TEE brought up
interesting aspects with respect to implementing the Knowledge
Triangle throughout universities. TEE brought a strong message
to encourage developing innovative learning spaces on the
Aalto implementation agenda (Aalto 2011):
• Aalto should target more development activities in its
curriculum and learning environment initiatives, especially
for the first-year studies which are essential to learning-tolearn;
• Aalto should take advantage of situations in which studies
are focused on solving real life cases and many study
teams include also professionals to apply lessons from the
classroom to their work environment. Further, they include
projects that require students to work across traditional
boundaries;
• Aalto should motivate university students to effective and
target-oriented studies by developing teaching methods
and support systems, such as students’ personal study
plans, multidisciplinary study teams and virtual learning
environments.
Universities must be determined in developing their academic
culture, as well as operational processes and structures, if they
are to meet the challenges related to their societal role. They
must be able to let go of the traditional methods based on
sectorization and silos. Instead, they ought to create a culture
of networks and co-creation that crosses through the entire
university. (Markkula, 2013)
New innovative learning spaces can be the drivers of this
cultural change. Strong evidence for this can be found in the 12
university cases analysed in the “Education in the Knowledge
Triangle” study. This rich collection of information from the
different universities brings together a number of potential ideas
and lessons on how to more effectively integrate the Knowledge
Triangle with education activities. In terms of innovative spaces,
the list includes the following ones (DC EAC, 2012):
• Creating rich learning environments for talent development;
• Taking an interdisciplinary approach;
• Embedding the entrepreneurial culture throughout the
higher education institution;
• Transforming working environments and widening access;


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• Embedding evaluation and monitoring of the impact of
activities related to the Knowledge Triangle in the university
strategy.
In result, certain principles call our attention, involving both
learners in degree programmes and working life professionals
with extensive experience. Motivated people lie at the centre
of innovation policy. People create innovations and therefore
innovation is, above all, a human and social process. The factors
that affect innovation are not confined to within organisations:
the most significant drivers of the innovation process at different
stages often emerge through human interaction at various
interfaces. These motivational factors are so crucial that a
deeper review of theories and knowledge of human interaction
and motivation are needed.

3. Human Interaction as a Learning Space
Besides the regional and societal structures presented above,
innovation activities also require a healthy and supportive
socio-cultural environment that nourishes new-creating
activities and individuals’ motivation. On the organisational
level, innovations rest on education and lifelong learning that
allow people to live up to their full potential, and on networks
which provide the so¬cial capital necessary for research and
development. Networks present themselves as organisational
structures but also as resources promoting communication,
trust and understanding, thereby facilitating innovation
activities. Networks also serve as a means to learn, individually
and organisationally, by offering forums for sharing information,
exchanging best practices, and learning from one another.
(Arhio, 2007)
Therefore, in order to optimize creativity, agility and efficiency,
organisations are to sustain and foster the intellectual and
mental capacity of their personnel to encour¬age them to
constantly give their utmost best. Unfortunately, it is too often
ignored that the build-up of organisational capability calls for
trust and communality, and employee autonomy. (Kultanen,
2009) Trust allows group members to tolerate mistakes, which is
an important stepping stone in securing organisational growth,
renewal, and innovation activities. A climate that does not
accept errors and imperfec¬tion cannot be creative. (Åhman,
2004)
Innovativeness in work communities builds largely on group
diversity where the members are highly oriented towards
common goals. Appreciation of diversity and criticism are

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instrumental in reducing unnecessary group conformity or
groupthink and in giving a boost to group performance and
especially creative thinking. (Korho¬nen-Yrjänheikki, 2011)
At times organisations unintentionally jeopardize or hinder
creativity by allowing or setting barriers to innovation activity.
These barriers stem from excessive control, too frequent or
inappropriately targeted assessment, a patronizing atmosphere,
or con¬stant rush. Too much control and monitoring tends to
restrain new-creating activities by instigating fear of failure
or mistakes. Anticipation of negative outcomes paralyzes
productive action, whereas feelings of safety unleash potential
and promote learning. (Goleman et al., 2001)
Motivation constitutes a key factor in learning. It stems from
various factors: the student’s interest and ability, the timeliness
and stimulation of the learning content, the inventiveness and
utility of the pedagogy, and the safety and positivity of the
environment. We examine ways in which universities can elicit
students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by paying particular
focus on learning spaces. (Korpelainen, 2011)
Affecting an individual’s motivations is important since adults
learn what they want to learn, and because they have different
learner styles. Ideally, education facilitates a permanent
capacity change that comprehensively alters individuals’ action,
habits and competences but also emotions and aspirations. To
bridge the gap between the students’ starting level and the
envisioned, individually-targeted level of ability, we advocate
learning that increases ownership, empowerment and freedom
to experiment and learn through trial and error. The new types
of learning spaces described in this article also promote selfactualization and self-management techniques. (Cagiltay, 2008)
The investment in experiments on novel approaches to learning
facilities serves aims that are two-fold. On the one hand,
universities are concerned with the holistic development of
students’ professional skills and identity, directing pedagogic
attention to abilities such as entrepreneurship. On the other,
higher education institutions are to meet challenges related
to societal development. The two aims are intertwined as
societal impact can only be achieved by individuals with certain
professional qualifications.
Universities need to set ambitious targets to change. As an
example to bolster new approaches to learning and pedagogy
through strong student motivation, Aalto has defined values


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that allow individuals to thrive and succeed, also through trial
and error:

Aalto University Values (Aalto, 2013):
•
•
•
•
•

Passion for exploration
Freedom to be creative and critical
Courage to influence and excel
Responsibility to accept, care and inspire
Integrity, openness and equality

4. The Impact of Digitalisation
Everyday life practices within the last twenty years have
changed dramatically, especially with respect to information and
knowledge. Digitalisation drives change in all global business,
and convergence towards digital services is speeding up. This
phenomenon has already had a huge impact on education
systems. The bases of learning have changed, with only part of
the learning resulting from teacher-led lecturing. Pedagogy is
moving away from teacher-centred and teacher-led practices
accentuating memorization, towards learner-centricity and
innovative learning environments – both physical, mental and
virtual. However, this by no means undermines the role of the
pedagogue; rather, it morphs the teacher into a facilitator and
a mentor, posing new types of demands. (Lu, 1997) Similarly,
learning facilities are striving to keep up with the changing
requirements, with their role remaining important in the
learning process.
These changes follow the trends in working life. More and
more companies, as well as the public sector, are facing rapid
change: phenomena are coalescing, sectoral boundaries have
become blurred and complexity has increased. The importance
of responsiveness and innovation has grown hugely over
the past few years in all types of business activity and work –
including policy-making. In the global and digital age, pioneers
and potential trend-setters are more and more often those who
succeed, because they pave the way and set the ground rules
for action. It is not necessary to be a leader in every sphere,
what matters is the state of mind. It is usually enough to build
sufficiently confidently on knowledge and practices developed
elsewhere. Digitalisation provides enormous opportunities – as
described in this article.
One of the final obstacles to developing a future based on digital
services has been removed by a technology carrying the brand
name “the cloud”. Naturally this entails changes in teaching and

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learning environments. Cloud technologies provide access to
the best service and best contents, which are available at any
time and in any place. This challenges pedagogues in adopting
these new services and the global knowledge flows. This way
of developing and producing educational services challenges
the traditional type of teaching, i.e. service thinking, where the
teacher is viewed as a local agent in all types of education is
described as a basic factor in all education. Organisational IT
systems are no longer based on local servers, or hardware in
every room.
All of this puts service design at the centre of every value
proposition. Thus when creating services for truly smart
classrooms where learners abandon old memes and old user
interfaces, teachers are more than in the past seen as service
providers who accelerate the learning process, working
alongside learners as their coaches. (Lappalainen, 2013) The
competition is severe, and currently many players claim to have
created the dominant concept. But the game is not over yet,
on the contrary, it has only just begun: learning processes are
changing radically as everything that can be digitalised will be
digitalised.
Despite all this, most schools, universities and other educational
establishments are not the forerunners in updating the spaces
and education methods used.

5. Regional Innovation Ecosystem
5.1 The Frame for Creating Innovative Spaces
The planning and construction of facilities is largely driven by
building instructions that regulate technical and architectural
implementations and costs related to construction and
maintenance. Transforming the general alignments promoting
innovation activities into concrete practices is challenging,
especially in an environment where ongoing operations
cannot be interrupted and where no significant funding has
been allocated for change. As we aim to demonstrate in this
article that even a larger change can be implemented, we
start by describing the essential frameworks supporting our
examination:
• Characteristics of learning spaces, and
• Enablers of the innovation ecosystem.
Learning spaces meeting the targets described in this article
consist of several dimensions and elements. The challenges based
on ICT development were reviewed from different perspectives
and defined as follows by the Expert Workshop organised by


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IPTS in October 2005. Learning spaces put learners at the centre
of learning, but, at the same time, conceives learning as a social
process. Learners become co-producers in the learning process
and not mere consumers of learning content. Learning spaces
are comprised of the following dimensions (IPTS, 2006):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Learning spaces are connected and social spaces;
Learning spaces are personal digital spaces;
Learning spaces are trusted spaces;
Learning spaces are pleasant and emotional spaces;
Learning spaces are learning spaces;
Learning spaces are creative/flexible spaces;
Learning spaces are open and reflexive spaces;
Learning spaces are certified spaces;
Learning spaces are knowledge management systems.

The Energizing Urban Ecosystems EUE research programme, as
described later in this article, strengthens the already existing
innovation hub with the selected forerunner themes on high
international level. One of the key questions addresses the
shifting of the emphasis of the strong research, education and
corporate hub into a living and working hub that is characterized
by entrepreneurial discovery and creative industries and that
produces significantly more innovations than before. During the
first year of the EUE programme, the academic and industrial
researchers defined, under the guidance of Professor Pirjo
Ståhle, the enablers of the innovation ecosystem. The following
are focused on spaces:
• The need for modifiable and flexible spaces: (a) facilitate
experimentations, (b) provide experiences in being
empowered to act differently, (c) allow to reflect meanings
and values of identity, (d) develop and maintain platforms
that offer resources for users to select, utilize, modify and
create;
• The need of intelligent spaces: (a) prototype technological
solutions, (b) create platforms for people on building
various meanings;
• The need of attracting spaces: (a) use something inspiring
and unique through design, art and ergonomics.
These bring new angles and perspectives compared with
traditional space design.
Also architectural competitions have proved to be effective
ways of pursuing new approaches and solutions. As an example
of this, Aalto University Properties Ltd arranged in 2012-2013 a
competition for designing a lively central campus area for Aalto
University and its new main building. The amount of floor area

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to be located in the competition area is between 48,000 – 52,000
m2 (gross floor area) around the new metro station. In addition
to common criteria in these types of architectural assignments,
the Competition Programme highlighted the following learning
environment criteria:
A learning environment of the future will integrate public
and semi-public facilities, service producers and users. A
shift is underway from the traditional, instructor-centric
notion of teaching toward a new focus on students as
active subjects. One of the tasks of universities is now
to support group-based learning activities. Reaching this
objective requires comprehensive re-examination of the
current learning environment. In addition to lecture halls,
studios and laboratories, learning is understood as taking
place in various unofficial encounters and situations.
The facilities should, therefore, promote and support
active collaboration and interaction. The objective is to
find new concepts and create a lively and interactive
environment for research and learning activities wherein
work, studies, leisure and living are interwoven in a
natural way and create the foundation for a university
city of the future. (Competition Programme, 2012)
The Competition Programme also stressed usability as a learning
environment by requesting that the solution:
1. Should promote the culture of the entire innovation
community: multidisciplinary international cooperation,
joint projects and occasional encounters;
2. Develops a basic solution for connecting indoor and
outdoor areas in all weather conditions;
3. Should provide a suitable range of spatial solutions for all
members of the Otaniemi community, with smooth and
effortless connections between the various components;
4. Represents innovative values that promote international
visibility and increase the appeal of the campus.

5.2

Ecosystem Thinking

Grand societal challenges are typically extremely complex by
nature. Therefore, the related solutions call for unprejudiced
learning, that is, reflection of new opportunities and research in
multi-dimensional co-creation teams and networks. Significant
learning takes place as part of large innovation ecosystems.
Professor Martin Curley, Director of Intel Labs Europe,
challenged the readers of the EU Open Innovation Yearbook
2012: “Open Innovation 2.0 could be defined as the fusion


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of Henry Chesbrough’s open innovation concept and Henry
Etzkowitz’s triple helix innovation concept. Triple Helix is
about achieving structural innovation improvements through
proactive collaborations between industry, academia, and
government. The impact of this collaborative innovation goes
well beyond the scope of what any organisation could achieve
on their own.” (Curley, 2012)
Ecosystem is a buzzword we see often in today’s media. A
natural ecosystem is defined as a biological community of
interacting organisms together with their physical environment.
In the same way, a business ecosystem is “the network of
buyers, suppliers and makers of related products or services”
together with the socio-economic environment, including the
institutional and regulatory framework. A digital ecosystem is a
self-organising digital infrastructure aimed at creating a digital
environment for networked organisations that supports the
cooperation, the knowledge sharing, the development of open
and adaptive technologies and evolutionary business models.
(European Commission, 2012)
Professor C.K. Prahalad gave a clear message to universities by
defining three critical aspects of innovation and value creation:
1) Value will increasingly be co-created with customers. 2) No
single firm has the knowledge, skills, and resources it needs to
co-create value with customers. 3) The emerging markets can
be a source of innovation. One of his main conclusions should
be taken into particularly thorough consideration in creating the
new role for universities: The competitive arena is shifting from
a product-centric paradigm of value creation to a personalized
experience-centric view of value creation. (Prahalad, 2008)
The ecosystem thinking sets new guidelines for learning
environments. An effective learning environment incorporates
operative methods that elicit new insights and stimulate
individuals to exceed their own limits. Typically coincidental
encounters and interactive processes fostering surprising
innovative angles elicit curiosity and inspiration. A successful
learning environment is characterized by myriad events that
could be described as creative tension.
Uncertainty factors, doubts and tensions are present in all
interpersonal activities. The point is to modify tensions,
in particular, so that they serve as a source of creativity
and innovation, and so that the principles of the learning
organisation are followed. The creative process itself becomes a
clearly creative tension that can be applied to change activities
in systems and to change systems as a whole. It is important

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to adopt methods and concepts that increase the amount
of learning, raise its quality and enhance sustainable social
development.
Universities with all their stakeholders should thoroughly explore
regional innovation ecosystems and the role, importance,
activity, spatial solutions and success enablers of communities
and institutions that spur new and dynamic innovation activity
in such ecosystems. Especially the educational institutions
should focus on the new mind-set and environment required
for user-centric design, co-creation and rapid piloting.
The recent development has throughout the world led to
new operational units with flexible entities characterized
by a strong collaborative approach in all their activities. The
examples include: Incubators and Accelerators, Living Labs,
Entrepreneurial Hubs, Development Labs, Social Innovation
Labs, Fab Labs, Societal Innovation Learning Camps and
Future Centers. They usually operate as associated entities
of universities, municipalities and businesses. They combine
new and open operating practices, use of social media, new
intellectual property rights and funding practices, a broad
stakeholder network and entrepreneurship.

5.3 Aalto Pioneering the European University
Reform
The explosive increase in the amount of available information,
continuously tightening competition, and the European
economic crisis have also forced universities to rethink
their operations, structures and management cultures.
Today’s university operations are generally characterized by
fragmentation: units are too small and efficiency measurements
guide them too much towards independent scientific
publications and projects accentuating their own operations.
New significance can only be created, first and foremost, by
drawing on solid research expertise and both cross-disciplinary
and international collaboration envisioning innovative research
initiatives.
An essential principle in the EU programme period 2014-2020
is Smart Specialisation and it should be visible also in university
activities. One should know and dare specialize and collaborate
openly, much more than before. The desired change requires a
new attitude also from financiers and university management.
Our eyes must open to the huge global opportunities, and all
the parties involved should be both bold and capable enough to


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create a system of mega-endeavours. With this term we refer to
entities comprised of several projects, an orchestrated portfolio
of projects operating on the basis of strategic partnerships. This
system is built both on the in-depth research activities within
diverse disciplines, and multi- and inter-disciplinary collaboration
between diverse disciplines. This preferred development also
calls for a new university culture capable of challenging the
traditional ways of working and thinking. Universities need
to begin recognizing new innovative landscapes as immense
opportunities, now more than ever.
Universities are challenged especially by the creation of new
learning environments in practice. Our case examples illustrate
how theory moulds into practice: Aalto University – the
merger of Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School
of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki –
started its operation in January 2010. The period of planning
the merger did not extend long; more important was inspiring
and creating a foundation for active initiative within the entire
university community along with its stakeholder groups. To
provide a mental incentive for its community, the university
wanted to signal its excellence as a forum of materializing
dreams.

university-level research, development and innovation (RDI).
Open Innovation integrating research, teaching, learning and
different collaborative developments is a feature characterizing
all these activities.
These all are new openings based on the existing Aalto
strengths and activities, as well as the defined development
needs. However, making new organisational structures is not a
priority activity. Instead, the first phase of the strategy process
has stressed the definition of the Aalto Vision 2020, based on
the general aims and objectives set by the Aalto Board and the
review and planning process integrating different elements
within the University activity spectrum.

Aalto University set a target to create a solid foundation for
societal impact by integrating the separate activities of different
departments and other units and to develop synergistically
connected entities securing prerequisites for close universityindustry cooperation in the spirit of the Knowledge Triangle.
Such entities were defined as:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Figure 1: Aalto Impacts Working Culture: Four Methodological Areas to Be
Developed and Integrated.

Aalto University Factories;
The Learning Center;
Open Innovation Activities;
Strategic Partnerships.

Aalto University on a broad scale has developed its activities
towards being a real life living lab. On the other hand, several
units within Aalto are already running subject-focused living lab
operations. The need to create a cross-disciplinary operating
culture that examines societal phenomena multi-disciplinarily
has been documented in Aalto’s strategic alignments. Upon
University transformation, we have drawn guidelines depicting,
what is meant by networked Aalto Living Labs and other
open innovation operations (Figure 1). At the same time, this
materializes as intensified collaboration between diverse
operators from the different parts of the University with the
aim of increasing societal interaction with and impact on
society significantly. The concept and its activities are based on

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Within the three missions of universities (research, education
and societal interaction), the work for the transformation
plan has followed the following route: defining (a) vision
2020, (b) concepts and processes, (c) culture and capabilities,
(d) structures. In increasing the societal impact of Aalto, the
guiding principle has been that research conducted by all Aalto
units serves as an essential channel increasing societal impact.
In addition, special emphasis is all the time on developing
the higher education and innovation theories in parallel with
implementation and also rapid prototyping, i.e. making things
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6 Regional Innovation Ecosystem around
the Aalto Campus
6.1 The Research Programme “Energizing Urban
Ecosystems”
Energizing Urban Ecosystems, EUE, is a Finnish 4-year research
program for 2012-2015, with 20 MEUR funding, with 50 % of
the funding coming from industry and the other 50% from
public bodies including Tekes, Espoo City and Aalto University.
The EUE program has brought together a broad group of
researchers, innovators, business interests and civil sector
participants to pursue its ambitious objectives. The program is
organised through RYM SHOK, the Strategic Centre for Science,
Technology and Innovation for the Built Environment.
The special focus of the EUE research is the T3 area (Otaniemi,
Keilaniemi, Tapiola) in Espoo, Fin-land’s and also northern
Europe’s most significant concentration of innovation resources
and activities (an area of about 5 km2). According to the plans,
within the next 10 years, there will be new investments of
about 5 BEUR: metro, tunnel construction of ring road, other
infra, housing, office and business buildings, public services,
university buildings, sports, cultural facilities and others.
However, the most important driver of change is the mentality
towards innovation and entrepreneurial discovery.
This T3, the innovation triangle, forms an ideal landscape for
prototyping potentially valuable innovation methodologies
and technologies in real-life test beds. The program will create
an internationally recognized and multi-disciplinary hub of
excellence for urban development in Finland, working through
a globally networked cooperation platform for R&D projects
in urban development. EUE will create and apply operational
models and solutions to the challenges posed by urbanization.
The goal is to create user-centric and competitive urban solution
concepts applicable to both existing and new areas. Solutions for
smart urbanization, orchestrated innovation activities, energy
use and mobility will be integrated into the design of the built
environment, land use and ecosystems of service production.
This research will create a powerful research-based practice for
actively building the pioneering smart city-region.
Within the EUE program, the Regional Innovation Ecosystem
(RIE) work package has brought together diverse technologies
and methodologies for new urban design and development.
In this inno¬vation-enabling environment, the EUE program

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demonstrates how to effectively implement the key enabling
success factors of the Europe 2020 strategy, and how an
updated triple helix model supported by the Knowledge
Triangle approach can enhance collaboration between the
city, universities, research institutes and diverse enterprises
throughout this regional innovation ecosystem.
From the perspective of Horizon 2020, the EUE program is highly
relevant for achieving European goals. In the EUE program,
we see how value can be co-created with customers and
stakeholders, how the orchestration of support infrastructure
between participating partners can create synergies in using
knowledge, skills, and resources to co-create value with
customers, and how experience-centric models of value
creation can be applied. Looking at the relevance of the EUE
programme to Horizon 2020, we see a number of important
aspects, including:
1. Setting the example of a pioneering innovation region:
how to create and maintain an effective regional
innovation ecosystem;
2. Using Espoo T3 as a test bed for specific innovative
practices: developing realistic, close-to-the-street
innovations in practice, with measurable effect on the
lives of citizens and stakeholders;
3. The potential for applying many of the technologies,
methodologies, working processes and collaboration
models developed here in other European regions;
4. The possible scaling of relevant concepts, working
pro¬cesses, results, and research questions, whereby
lessons learned here could become lessons to be learned
elsewhere.

6.2 Regional Information Modelling and Virtual
Reality
The EUE program was launched in May 2012 and has moved
forward in a number of ways, including its scientific research
on regional information modelling integrated with virtual reality
applications. The EUE research program adopts cutting-edge
techniques for spatial data acquisition. These are applied to,
and combined with, concepts for a digital ubiquitous ecosystem
in Espoo City T3 area. The target application will be a mobile
and virtual smart city model with geospatial virtual knowledge
elements. Specific attention will be paid to aspects of usability
and innovative visualisation for various user needs. By capturing
the city’s geometry and characteristics through laser scanning,
the resulting model can be applied in an information modelling


8

In-depth
process to conduct different kinds of analysis. The virtual —
pos¬sibly, photorealistic — models used as the basis for the
regional information model create a virtual city, geometrically
accurate and visually close-to-iden¬tical with the real one.
This enables city planning, built environment and real estate
management pro¬fessionals, as well as decision-makers and
citizens, to use the model for diverse purposes.
As we have described in this article, the impacts of digitalization
have been overwhelming in many activities – also in terms
of innovation and learning. Universities should be the
forerunners in applying latest scientific and technical research
and innovation knowledge to real-life practices. An example
of opening and testing potential opportunities is the work in
the EUE of integrating real and virtual worlds. In practice, this
means that university researchers and industrial professionals
review physical, mental and virtual environments in parallel,
i.e. as operational and learning spaces. An integral part of the
ongoing EUE processes is the Meshmoon (a product of a SME
called Adminotech) online virtual reality hosting system, which
is based on on-demand cloud hosting technology and the open
source realXtend Tundra software. The Research Institute of
Measuring and Modelling for the Built Environment at Aalto
University together with the Finnish Geodetic Institute are
developing the concept of Regional Information Modelling,
based on an open source virtual world application platform.
Traditional Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used in
controlling a single construction process in order to record
physical and activity-based features in a digital form.
The resulting building information models become shared
knowledge resources to support decision-making about a facility
from earliest conceptual stages, through design and construction
through its operational life and eventual demolition. Regional
Information Model can be regarded as a similar presentation of
a larger area of built environment, that can be further used e.g.
for virtual city planning. The Regional Information Model could
provide a reliable and trustworthy basis for lifetime engineering
supporting new value-adding activities and decision-making. It
could also create a novel platform for urban planning, where
designers, civil engineers, city officials and inhabitants will be
able to interact, exchange thoughts and study the evolving
urban environment in a visual way with the help of accurate
spatial data. (Hyyppä & Virtanen, 2013)
The starting point for the regional information modelling is the
integration of existing building information models, different

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spatial information systems, and state-of-the-art measuring
techniques such as Mobile Laser Scanning, with virtual
environments. This, in effect, creates a combination of the
physical and virtual worlds. Within the EUE program, we have
used these instruments in creating our virtual collaboration
platforms (Figure 2). Online virtual reality hosting systems, like
Meshmoon, are still fairly new technologies, but the potential
is high. Updateability and availability are some of the major
benefits of networked virtual environments, such as Meshmoon:
the latest version of the model of the built environment could
be in use within a few hours from completion. As the virtual
environments can be viewed by several users simultaneously,
the customer, contractor, users and decision makers can
instantly discuss various aspects of the project online, enabling
efficient cooperation. Demonstrations where the physical and
virtual worlds meet provide an excellent foundation on which
to present research results. Applications can be examined from
a user’s point of view before beginning the final development
work. A demonstration can be used to reify and clarify the
possibilities offered by a technology. (Hyyppä & Virtanen, 2013).

Figure 2: Aalto City Integrating Real and Virtual Worlds.

6.3 Aalto Innovation Garden and Aalto Design
Factory
Aalto Innovation Garden is the new focal point of innovation
buzz at Aalto Campus. Its core activities pivot around the Aalto
Design Factory (ADF), the Startup Sauna (SS) and the Urban
Mill (UM). Together these three co-working and co-creation
spaces, and their common yards, form a networked physical,
virtual and social Knowledge Triangle with its nodes focused
on learning (main responsibility ADF), systemic innovation


9

In-depth
(main responsibility UM) and new business creation (main
responsibility SS). The operators of these spaces work daily and
closely together. (ADF & SS & UM, 2013)
Startup Sauna, founded in 2010, is a non-profit organization for
startups and aspiring entrepreneurs in Northern and Eastern
Europe and Russia. The aim is to implement a blooming
startup ecosystem and a pay-it-forward culture into the region
in order to make it the best place for startups. The newly
renovated Startup Sauna space is the meeting place for aspiring
entrepreneurs in Northern Europe. The 1.500-m² co-working
space is an old industry hall free for anybody interested to
work at. In practice, Startup Sauna consists of three different
operations:1) an internship program for aspiring entrepreneurs
to work at high-growth companies in Helsinki and in Silicon
Valley, 2) an accelerator program for early-stage startups
where the companies receive coaching from experienced serial
entrepreneurs and investors in an intense one-month program
in Helsinki, and 3) The Slush conference, which brings together
the early-stage startup ecosystem in the region to meet top-tier
venture capitalists and media from around the world.
The activities are mainly self-organised by multi-disciplinary
communities of practice and collaboration is facilitated through
shared boundary objects. Their human-centered innovation
orchestration approaches challenge the traditional institutioncentred Knowledge Triangle practices. (Mikkelä & Miikki, 2013)
Factories are a strategic part of Aalto University’s ecosystem,
aiming at deep and sustainable social, cultural and economic
impact. Factories provide physical and virtual facilities, coaching
and facilitation to increase collaboration between academia,
industry, and society (Triple Helix perspective). Factories enable
and inspire knowledge co-creation and make Aalto more
visible and easily accessible. They create the desired working
and learning culture in the Aalto community, including all its
stakeholders and customers.
By definition, Aalto Design Factory is an experimental co-creation
platform for education, research and application of product
design – where ‘design’ has a broad meaning. Three factories
started their operations in the fall 2008: Design Factory, Service
Factory and Media Factory. The factories serve as experimental
platforms, showrooms and sources of inspiration for all the
parties involved.
Aalto Design Factory is defined briefly as “A Passion-Based CoCreation Platform” and “Expertise Value = hard x (soft)2”. The
following quotations sum up the opinions of thousands of ADF

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users describing the multi-dimensional nature of innovative
spaces. The Aalto Design Factory has been described as:
•
•

•

•

A symbiosis of the state-of-the-art conceptual thinking
and cross-disciplinary hands-on doing;
A platform for experimental problem-based learning
to promote better learning outcomes as well as enable
experiments in industry-university collaboration;
A place where students, teachers, researchers and
industry partners can interact under the same roof.
The place has its architecture and certain enabling
and supporting technologies, but perhaps even more
important are the soft issues – philosophy, attitudes, our
ways of working;
A second home for having fun, experimenting, failing fast
and learning, asking for help from others, being openly
curious, inspiring by example, being proactive, and taking
initiative. (Aalto Design Factory Stories, 2013)

The following categories have been defined as the characteristic
features of interaction within ADF community:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Potential for Collaboration;
Close community as a home base;
Open Interaction;
Diversity of the ADF community members;
Importance of integrating with the ADF community;
Importance of the atmosphere.

Some new developments for Aalto Design Factory’s next step
ADF 2.0 are already processing with even more ambitious goals,
more aspiring people and more focused activities. ADF 2.0 will be
building a world-class hub and community for Interdisciplinary
Product Design in its widest meaning.

6.4

The Urban Mill

The most visible outcome of the EUE pro¬gramme so far is the
Urban Mill (UM). It is a thematic focal point and open innovation
platform service for global urban innovators. The UM was
established in early 2013.
The UM is also a co-working space, an innovation community,
and a change orchestration tool. The UM aims to re-define the
way in which people accomplish joint innovation work, and aims
to make societal impact in a global urban context. It strives to
be a point that people want to visit because it seems natural,
special or relevant to them. The space is not only bringing single
individuals together but also supporting to engage and energize
people. (Mikkelä & Miikki, 2012a)


10

In-depth
According to the UM vision, a substantial amount of the cocreative knowledge work of the future is carried out in thematic
RDI communities using smart co-working and co-creation
spaces which are digitally supported, connected and globally
distributed. Space concepts are seen as creative hybrids of
physical, virtual and social dimensions. Each hybrid space has
its own core working community, thematic properties, specific
characteristics and functional role within their own network of
other connected thematic spaces and within their respective
ecosystems. (Mikkelä & Miikki, 2012b)
UM facilitates re-thinking how sustainable urban innovations can
be pursued and how urban transformations are orchestrated.
The UM community shares a common challenge, which is how
to enhance the quality of urban life and services through ICT
and built environment development, and how to orchestrate
and energize urban ecosystems development. The UM itself
is like a continuous facilitated innovation journey, where the
collaborative actions and creative dialogue between different
UM actors is boosted and facilitated by using physical, virtual
and social boundary objects, like shared concepts, methods,
probes, prototypes, demonstrations, test-beds and living labs.
(Mikkelä & Miikki, 2013)
The Urban Mill’s enabling service provision supports co-learning,
co-design and co-effectuation of the user communities. As a
connected smart space, the Mill acts also as a two-way interface
to thematic creative social networks of its users and as a twoway interface to the relevant macro-context digital open data
sources. This extensive connectedness supports space usage
experiences and its users’ own micro-context transformations
before, during and after events held in its physical or virtual
premises. (Miikki & Mikkelä 2012)
The core competence of the orchestration team centres on
the organization of the right methods, tools and facilitation
processes for help¬ing projects and partners achieve their
objectives. The methods may range from tools and technologies
for creative-problem-solving, user-centred co-creation, building
syn¬ergies and breaking silos, dealing with resistance to change
and creating breakthroughs in no-progress situations. In
addition, a systemic learning infrastructure is needed to ensure
effective learning, and to facilitate entrepreneurial learning –
the rapid application of lessons learned within the ecosystem
so that projects and players within can systematically benefit
from each other’s experience and expertise. (Markkula & Kune,
2012)

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The process of creating something like Urban Mill is a novel
example of the public-private partnership. The orchestrating
initiator and driver taking also an operative risk of succeeding
is a private company Järvelin Design Ltd, while the other main
stakeholders involved are Aalto University, City of Espoo and
RYM SHOK. This type of a setup has proved to be a dynamic
foundation for the initiative and could be applied as a leading
principle also in other contexts.
The theoretical background of the UM development is based
on theories and concepts such as Nonaka’s “Ba”, Susan Star
and James Griesemer’s ”Boundary Objects” and Joseph Pine’s
“Multiverse Framework”. Figure 3 explains the context and main
building blocks of the Urban Mill approach.

Figure 3: Smart Networked Co-Working Space (Ba) Supporting
Creative Knowledge Work.
The development process followed the principles of effectual
entrepreneurship and lean start-up methodologies. The funding
is mostly from the main users of the facilities, so no venture
capital or direct public funding was needed. Sustainability
factors are highly respected, the building is a former Technical
Research Centre of Finland (VTT) testing laboratory facility in
Otaniemi. The building was transformed into a 1300-m² flexible
co-working and co-creation space by the pioneering Urban Mill
community itself. Space elements and modules are flexible and
multi-usable, and open to all regardless of who is hosting the
sub space. Most of the furniture, technology and resources are
recycled and shared among all users. Also fixed costs are shared


11

In-depth
and even some of the basic facility and special support services
are co-produced on social exchange basis. (Kakko, 2013)

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7. Conclusions

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The Smart City concept has been one of the EU focus areas in
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Edition and production
Name of the publication: eLearning Papers
ISSN: 1887-1542
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Phone: +34 933 670 400
Email: editorialteam[at]openeducationeuropa[dot]eu
Internet: www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/elearning_papers

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