Carleton students and graduates are launching a new collaborative social innovation space in downtown Ottawa in February.

Hub Ottawa will be a “membership-based creative space and incubator for community projects and social enterprises,” said Vinod Rajasekaran, a Carleton graduate and the project’s managing director, via email.

The space will act as an “interdisciplinary social innovation studio,” Rajasekaran said, which aims to “catalyze and support individuals to kick-start, advance and grow their social impact ideas, projects and ventures.”

Architecture and industrial design students from Carleton and Algonquin College were asked to help design the downtown space that will house the Hub.

“Designing the Hub as a collaborative space requires a collaborative approach. The key to designing the Hub is to put the users of the space at the centre of the process,” Rajasekaran said. “We wanted to give design students the experience to get creative while working a real-life project with real values and constraints.”

Students were given 48 hours to provide design concepts and floor plans for the space.

“The results were extraordinary,” he said.

The Hub will hold “purposeful networking” and events, Rejasekaran said. Hub hosts will connect members to mentors and experts in their fields with accessible office hours, peer review sessions and workshops.

Diversity and social innovation are the core of the Hub’s mission. The ideas and projects that will be developed range from sectors such as arts and culture, education, at-risk youth, local food, journalism, and international development.

The Hub is also designed to facilitate the development of existing student projects and ideas in social innovation and “bring them to the next level,” Rajasekaran said.

Hub Ottawa has created a package for students, which would see them pay for the term and receive 15 per cent off the regular membership price, he said.

Through Hub Ottawa, Rajasekaran said he would like to facilitate projects that would take on issues such as financial literacy among youth, and sustainable living through apartment composting.

This Hub is one of 30 similar spaces around the world, with more set to open in Los Angeles, Dubai and Seoul, Rajasekaran said.