From Bankster HQ to Start-up Central in Iceland

The Start-Up Kids is a documentary about young entrepreneurs who have founded web and media startups in the US and Europe. Made by two young Icelandic women, it contains interviews with tech-leaders of today and tomorrow.

The founders of Dropbox, Vimeo, Flickr, Wordpress, Posterous and many others talk about how they started their company, and what their lives are like as an entrepreneur.

But what I most like about this project is the office of its producers (below). They are working out of a former building in Reykjavik of the notorious and now defunct Glitner bank.

The building (below) once housed people who wrecked Iceland's economy. It's some kind of poetic justice that it has now been turned into one of Iceland's seven incubators for — well, start-ups. The banksters' former pad is now named after its neighbourhood Kvosin and is supported by the Iceland Innovation Centre.

I'm adding Kvosin to my collection of inspiring ways to re-use buildings formerly occupied by banksters — including the amazing Monumento project in Sao Paulo.

Posted in: Business, Media

Comments [1]

Very cool. As an ex-pat Icelander I'm out of the loop on these things. Fun to see coverage about it here.
(BTW, The bank's name was Glitnir, not Glitner.)

Kári Emil Helgason
03.21.11
10:29

John Thackara is a writer, speaker and design producer, and director of Doors of Perception. In addition to this blog, he is the author of twelve books including In The Bubble: Designing In A Complex World and Wouldn’t It Be Great If….

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