Urban Mill is a space, a community and a service situated in at the heart of Aalto University campus in Espoo Innovation Garden, Finland.

Urban Mill brings together important actors to help solve wicked problems of urban life. It shows how the built environment can be planned and designed based on actual use. It is a hub with the theme of developing new digitally-enabled service concepts. Urban Mill builds long-term collaboration through new solutions that are tested rapidly and flexibly.

Want information and contacts? Searching for an energizing work community? Are you an urban innovator or researcher? Are you establishing an enterprise? Searching for development partners? Arranging events? Need flexible spaces?  – Ask for more information!

Services, partnerships and memberships

• Action and event spaces: Diverse self-service spaces for our community to share. Our space is also available to organizations outside our network who want to showcase, develop and prototype their own urban innovations.

• Ecosystem services: A wide spectrum of services supporting innovation, development, testing and business, including co-location services to establish business in the area. Urban Mill is a great entry into the opportunities, networks and resources available in the Espoo Innovation Garden, the biggest innovation hub in Nordics

• Partnership: Several alternatives for organisations and institutional actors to join the program and become part of the community.

• Membership: Alternatives answering the needs of different sized organisations in different development phases- from micro entrepreneurs to big enterprises.

Memberships and programs include the use of shared spaces, discounts on event spaces, the possibility to use the 3D cave and technology provided together with Aalto Built Environment Laboratory, Smart Screens, thematic networks and access to Urban Mill’s service network.

Urban Mill is a global focal point for urban innovation co-creation

Urban Mill brings urban developers together with residents and other users of the urban environment. Public and private sector institutions, researchers, new entrepreneurs and students have a place to share ideas with the users of the built environment. Urban Mill is a venue for events and a smart co-working space for entrepreneurs and developers. Our partners exhibit results both physically and virtually. Simultaneously, Urban Mill is an innovation accelerator that is connected to other spaces needed by our community.

Brief history

Urban Mill started as a public-people-private partnership in 2013. The main partners of the program are the City of Espoo, Aalto University and Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK. A private company is responsible for developing the Urban Mill concept, operating the space and arranging the services.

 Urban Mill 2013-2018 by the numbers:

• 150.000+ people participated in 3.500+ registered events on our platform
• 15.000+ visitors hosted from Finland and abroad
• 1.000+ pioneers involved in our service co-creation
• 1.000+ organisations and projects as platform users
• 100+ teams and startups have joined our community

Further infomation:

Executive Producer:  Mr. Kari Mikkelä, kari.mikkela (at) urbanmill.fi, +358-50-500 4048

Co-Producer:  Mr. Lars Miikki, lars.miikki (at) urbanmill.fi, +358-40-503 6630