Swisscom info and facts

A place for networking and co-creation: La Werkstadt opens its doors in Biel

Meetings take place online, work is completed on the train or in the café around the corner. Modern communication technologies have irrevocably changed the way we work. And one thing we notice again and again: even in this digitised world of work, interaction between people remains essential. And this was also the idea behind La Werkstadt. The “Haus der Möglichkeiten” or House of Opportunities, which was initiated by Swisscom and Huawei, opens its doors today in Biel.

By Armin Schädeli

5 September 2016

The idea behind La Werkstadt is to promote the exchange of information between people during their normal working days. It’s a kind of idea workshop geared towards companies, the self-employed, opinion leaders, students and lateral thinkers. Towards people that like to exchange ideas, who are looking for or giving advice, who are inquisitive and want to make their skills available to others. “The entire architecture of the house has been designed to provide meeting areas”, explains Heinz Herren, Head IT, Network and Infrastructure at Swisscom Ltd. “In La Werkstadt nobody works alone in quiet corners.” On the contrary: La Werkstadt works in line with the principle of co-creation.

Upper floors: Huawei and workspaces

On the seven upper floors, La Werkstadt provides teams and companies with inspirational rooms and spaces. These areas will be used over the long term to work in accordance with the philosophy and methods of Human-Centered Design (HCD). These areas can be used by Swisscom, its partners and also external parties, when available. Huawei, Swisscom’s technology partner in the fixed network and bandwidth area, is also on board. With La Werkstadt, the two partners will be intensifying their cooperation, which was started in 2008, and creating a common platform for future developments. “We look forward to working together with Swisscom locally in order to shape the future together”, says Xiao Haijun, CEO of Huawei Switzerland. “The first projects have already been launched, and we are currently developing a successor technology for the transmission standard G.fast, for example.”

Ground floor: Co-working made easy

he “Co-Space” is the centrepiece of the house, a large area covering around 184 m². In this area, La Werkstadt provides its members with a multi-sector network for establishing successful collaboration activities. No matter whether student or manager: people work together here, fiddle things out and provide valuable feedback instantaneously. This open exchange should help to improve project results and provide inspiration for developing working innovations.

Basement level: Living broadband

Change of scenery in the basement. How does fibre-optic technology actually work? What does the ongoing development of the mobile network look like? An interactive tour provides the answers. Interested persons as well as specialists are provided with an overview of the Swisscom world of mobile and fixed network technologies. In doing so, augmented reality also comes into play: if you hold a tablet PC, which is provided for use, in front of an object on display, all of the relevant information appears on the screen. Tours can be booked via the contact form on the homepage of La Werkstadt. La Werkstadt is located on Bahnhofstrasse 5 in Biel, and is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 8pm. The opening times of the upper floors are based on the requirements of the respective projects. A membership fee of CHF 200 per half year must be paid to use the Co-Space.