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03.21.11

John Thackara | Essays

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.

More from John Thackara

When Tech In Care Is Evil
I spent the last two weeks in-and-around a care home in England that looks after people with dementia and terminal illness, and their families – including, this time, mine.

Food As A Commons
People go hungry not because of a shortage of production, but because the food available is too expensive, or they lack the land to grow it on. In California, the prototype of a combined social, political and technical solution has been launched which promises to unlock the food system crisis.

Presence and Encounter — How We Meet Is As Important As Why
I’m not suggesting that we abandon social media — just that we cultivate a hybrid approach so whenever someone says “online” someone else says, “and what about offline?”. Or when we find ourselves inside, someone else says: “and when do we go outside?”

Keep Your Stuff Alive
What would fashion be like if it was more than a an act of consumption with no meaning beyond the point of sale? What kind of system would improve the quality of our fashion experience without increasing the quantity we consume?

Cloud Commuting
A two-year project in Belgium proposes new relationships between people, goods, energy, equipment, spaces, and value. Its design objective: a networked mobility ecosystem.

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