The New Facade of Creative Innovation in Copenhagen

The New Facade of Creative Innovation

Imagine A cafe where you can both sip coffee and Design real-life prototypes

The thoughts behind Copenhagen's first ever open prototype workshop cafe are as innovative as they are intriguing. Republikken, Vesterbro's creative workspace Mecca opened its long awaited cafe in a colourful ceremony on Friday that bodes well for the future of the design house.

As it is, Republikken houses over 70 professionals within fields such as design, graphics, communication and craftsmanship. With the newly opened cafe, Repubklikken hopes to open its doors to the creative community by giving small companies and creative entrepreneurs who aren't residents at the cooperative the opportunity to save both time and expenses in their design process by providing a creative environment within which they can construct real-life prototype models of unfinished concepts. “Rapid prototyping” machinery and raw materials for the process are provided on-site, allowing for a quick and straightforward production process and eliminating the hassle of designers having to sub-contract agents to do produce their prototypes. The time creative professionals spend on buying raw materials themselves is also cut drastically, giving more efficiency to the production process.

The need for prototyping facilities in the creative industry is in fact, quite significant according to the renowned industrial designer, Rikard Zetterlund. “If I didn't have the opportunity to use the laser knife and the other machines at Republikken, I wouldn't be able to construct as many prototypes as I do and therefore I wouldn't be able to test all my many ideas” Zetterlund states.

Friday's opening ceremony attracted quite a few of the city's creative talents and if preliminary interest is anything to go by, it appears that Republikkens new cafe will definitely attract quite a few creative professionals in the future. Designer or not, Republikkens Cafe, located on Vesterbrogade 24b is definitely a spot to check out, if for nothing else than a cup of coffee in a creative and inspiring environment.