Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.02.2011, Qupperneq 25

in early 2009, a new institution
washed ashore in the Reykjavík
harbour, a little lifeboat providing
some refuge from iceland’s eco-
nomic shipwreck. it’s called hug-
myndahúsið ('The house of ideas'),
and was established to give rise to
50 companies that would in turn
create 500 new jobs over a period
of two years. it’s an idea that grew
out of an unlikely alliance between
two universities in Reykjavík; the
fine arts oriented iceland academy
of arts and business-minded Reyk-
javík university.
Hugmyndahúsið is ostensibly open to
everyone—including foreigners— and
getting involved is practically free. Too
good to be true? The Grapevine recently
toured the somewhat hidden House
of Ideas with project manager, Daníel
Björnsson, who helped shed some light
on its foundations.

FRoM buzzwoRdS To baSicS
According to Daníel, another way of
describing Hugmyndahúsið is an “open
innovation centre.” I ask him to describe
the ideological objectives of such a cen-
tre and he says: “to connect people.”
Yet, Daníel shies away from the term
networking and underlines the sponta-
neous rather than calculated possibili-
ties that such an open space provides.
“This environment works better with
creative people,” he says, “like creative
industries—another buzz word—but it’s
true, when you have this kind of rough
space, creative people seem to be drawn
to it because you can create your own
space out of it.” Although it is safe to say
that Hugmyndahúsið was conceived in
the wake of the 2008 economic crash in
order to create jobs and boost morale,
Daníel hesitates to call the institution a
force for social change, “It’s more of a
result of social change. We haven’t been
pushing anything in any particular di-
rection.”
In material terms, Hugmyndahúsið
oversees two large warehouse-type
spaces on Grandagarður. In addition to
the cubicle room that houses a rotat-
ing set of about a dozen various upstart
companies and projects, the main build-
ing houses a café and several pockets
of seemingly empty space. "We provide
chairs, a fridge and internet, but basi-
cally what you see is what you get." The
key is providing space: "You have the
opportunity because you have the space
to work your ideas out."
FRoM kniTTinG paRTieS To poli-
TicS
When Hugmyndahúsið first got started,
booking space in the cubicle room was
free, but a small fee was eventually in-
troduced (6.000 ISK per month) because
"people were booking space and not
showing up." Each group can use their
allotted space for up to nine months,
whereupon the group "graduates."
So far 56 companies have graduated,
the most successful being Clara, an IT
start-up now operating independently.
Along with IT people, architects form
another group that seems to gravitate
towards Hugmyndahúsið, and a tour
of the room revealed all sorts: accoun-
tants, knitting aficionados, board game
creators, product designers, art festival
organisers, Icelandic cinema promoters,
software developers and more. And as
Daníel stresses, they don't have to be
companies or "have something to do
with money." They can be projects, such
as Betri Stofan's brightly painted public
benches and garbage bins, which sud-
denly appeared on Laugavegur this past
summer.
Nor does one have to rent a square
to make use of the facilities. Adjoin-
ing the cubicle room, an exhibition hall
regularly hosts visual arts exhibitions,
architecture conferences, and politi-
cal meetings. For example, the newly
formed association for democracy and
sustainability, ALDA, "has been using
the hall for its meetings almost every-
day," Daníel tells me. He points to one
corner of the building where boxes of
stuff line the walls: "This is SARE's con-
tent provider. It is filled with recycled
material that companies were going to
throw away, but was brought here in-
stead and now pre-schools in Reykjavík
have access to it." Next to this arts and
crafts storehouse, is a recording stu-
dio. "CCP has a lot of equipment but no
space, so a group of young filmmakers
help out CCP in exchange for use of their
equipment."
The houSe oF ideaS GoeS FiSh-
inG
Last June, the Associated Icelandic
Ports in Faxaflói harbour gave Hug-
myndahúsið free lease on an old fish-
ing net warehouse on Grandagarður
16. The warehouse, known as Útgerðin
(“The Fishery”), amounts to 2500 square
meters of raw, loft space and Hugmyn-
dahúsið has been allocating units of
space to individuals and groups practi-
cally for free: "You pay 2.000 ISK for the
key, and then you get a thousand back
if you return it in the end." Despite the
worn down appearance of the space, it
has attracted all sorts of people from vi-
sual artists (especially recent graduates
of Iceland Academy of Arts), architects
(Borgarmynd) and designers (PopUp
Markaðurinn) to hackers (Hakkavélin),
alternative media initiatives (Krítík) and
theatre groups (Áhugaleikhús atvin-
numanna). Indeed the space is large
enough to accommodate live theatre
rehearsals and performances.
This past fall, Útgerðin hosted Hug-
myndasmiðjan, a start-up seminar that
involved some 200 individuals and 40
business ideas. At the end of the six-
week long seminar, six ideas were cho-
sen as the best and rewarded 450.000
ISK from various sponsors in order to
continue developing their projects.

capiTaliSM and The aRTS
I ask Daníel whether enlisting corpora-
tions such as Íslandsbanki, N1 and Össur
to provide prize money for Hugmyndas-
miðjan risks compromising both the ar-
tistic freedom of individual participants
and the academic integrity of the two
universities behind Hugmyndahúsið, but
he does not believe this is an issue. He
underlines the fact that Hugmyndahúsið
remains a non-profit organisation that
receives no private funding: "the uni-
versities are its sole benefactors." And
although he likens the alliance between
Iceland Academy of Arts and Reykjavík
University to "two separate species talk-
ing to each other," he maintains that the
results have been largely positive.
Incidentally, Daníel was also involved
in the Klink and Bank project, which
saw Landsbankinn give Kling and Bang
gallery free lease on a 5.000 square
metre building in downtown Reykjavík
between 2004-2005. Klink and Bank
was then offered as a free studio and
exhibition space to hundreds of artists.
Still, Daníel asserts, "the artists work-
ing in Klink and Bank were not compro-
mised by what Landsbankinn was do-
ing. Maybe we were just naive, but there
was very little cultural awareness about
the implications of branding." And the
sponsor, Daníel adds, did not prevent
grassroots organisations such as Sav-
ing Iceland (which gathered opposition
against the Kárahnjúkar dam) and Nýhil
(which publishes the politically leftist
book series Afbækur) to make use of the
space. Moreover, he says, "at one point,
courses in civil disobedience were being
held in Klink and Bank, basically on offer
through Landsbankinn, which at least
goes to show that the bank was also na-
ive in their understanding of what was
going on there."
cloSinG TiMe
It has not been easy to keep Hugmyn-
dahúsið and its subsidiary Útgerðin
running, for as Daníel remarks about
the latter, "it may look like a squat, but
it's not. We need to meet the minimum
health and safety codes as well as pay
for heating and electricity, and this has
been tricky." Moreover, the free lease
runs out this February, so the people
currently using the space will soon have
to pack up their projects and leave.
Hugmyndahúsið itself is currently facing
the probability of shutting down, as the
universities will stop funding the project
this month. Although Hugmyndahúsið
has applied for state funding, the pros-
pect of receiving it does not look prom-
ising.
And yet, Daníel remains resignedly
optimistic. "These grassroots things
come and go...all Hugmyndahúsið does
is provide the housing. And a house is
merely a house, people are the main
thing." It seems if people really want to
keep Hugmyndahúsið going, they will
have to take it upon themselves to find
another space.
ideas | Damn good ones
25
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2011
here Today Gone Tomorrow or next week
The rise and fall of Reykjavík’s House of Ideas
alda kRavec
aliSa kalyanova
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