MEKTORY stands for Modern Estonian Knowledge Transfer Organization For You.
It is a facility located on the Tallinn University of Technology (TTÜ) Campus filled with labs, showrooms, studios, conference rooms, spaces and rooms sponsored by International Embassies, start-up studios, bee-hives and much more! Open less than a year, the facility has already had over 29,000 visitors from 75 countries. Hendrik Voll, Department Chair of Heating and Ventilation, former Valle scholar and my sponsoring academic while here in Estonia arranged for a tour of the facilities along with Francesco De Luca, a visiting associate professor from Italy.
Photo Rasmus Reino
Our tour guide Rasmus led us through the facilities, showing us the different rooms and equipment, many of which had great examples of biophilic design, but that alone is not what I found the most interesting. Although MEKTORY in its physical form is the spaces for meeting and doing work, its intention is far beyond that— it is to make connections and allow for collaborations that don’t always exist in the academic world. It sees no barriers between the high academic and school children- in fact they work and learn from each other in the labs. It is a place where science, technology and hands on making, exploration and inventing things is not scary or in a specific program, it is for everyone. The facilities allow for and foster connections between the academic and business worlds, between Estonia and the international, between disciplines, and also between humans and nature. It is also a component of a promoting innovation and technology in country known for it, where Skype, GrabCad, and Kazaa, all began.
The Economist along with others has even featured articles focused on Estonia’s leading role in technology.
From their website, where you can also find more information, the aim of MEKTORY is:
1. To bring together scientists, students and entrepreneurs; solve practical product development problems and generate new intelligent ideas!
We have focused on three directions – design and product development, development of business models, and mobile services and media.
2. To tie theoretical studies at the university with the practical side to the maximum possible extent. To prepare better-trained engineers with an experience of cooperation with companies.
3. To encourage students’ start-up companies to move forward. We have already held four business model competitions and dispatched the winners to global centres of technology!
4. To deal with the upcoming generations and show that engineering is exciting, feasible and down to earth! Numerous possibilities have been created in the house for children.
5. To commit maximally to internationalisation, because these days, success is only guaranteed by combining different cultures, working habits, ideas and interesting solutions.
Photo by Hendrik Voll
And now for our tour……
As I mentioned MEKTORY is located on the TTU campus, located outside of the center of Tallinn and easy to get to by bus. (which is free for all residents of Tallinn)
Generally the spaces throughout MEKTORY can be categorized into Labs, Showrooms, Studios, Meeting and Seminar Rooms, and some other fun surprises.
As you may or may not know, Estonia is sometimes referred e-estonia, which is referring to the digital society and infrastructure that exists in the country. This means that many things that we may be used to requiring lots of time and physical presence can be done quickly and remotely (even internationally)- like voting, filing taxes (in just 5 minutes!), sign legal documents and more. Some of the Labs that we saw are working with expanding existing e-systems or creating new ones, like eHealthLab.
Similar to the stands at pharmacies where you can take your heart pressure and pulse, these stations would allow you to test certain vitals, but would also upload them to a central database that is linked to your medical documents and records. Not a replacement for going to the doctor, these “virtual clinics” could assist with preliminary tests and diagnosis. The lab is also intended to help analyze and develop eHealth products and services including devices that help train doctors and surgeons.
Other Labs include your more standard metals, welding, wood and painting labs and also an Electronics Lab Cool Tools.
This Cool Tool Lab is filled with Cool Tools that children or anyone can use to create things out of wood without fear of being cut or harmed by accidentally touching the device parts.
SHOWROOMS that we saw included the Samsung Digital Academy, sponsored by Samsung and the Robatorium.
The Samsung Digitial Academy gives a space for teachers (from the university and grade schools) to test out latest technologies and interactive teaching tools and for students working on developing programs and apps access to all the latest mobile devices to test their programs on.
One of the other showrooms- The Robotorium is a universal testing environment to try out the abilities of robots for academic studies and product development. There is also a space center encourage and bring awareness to space technologies and satellite applications.
Within MEKTORY there are several different types of studios- one designed by the Art Academy to demonstrate “everything necessary for human life in one space of 12m2” (also refered to as the bachelor pad) , and start-up studios that are designated to winners of the Mektory Business Model competition. These give students the chance to develop and market their innovations with the help of the university. The physical transparency of the labs also act as a storefront to market their ideas to potential sponsors and funding that pass through MEKTORY. Prismattery, the occupant of one of the Innovation labs, is a “spinoff” company specializing in the “design , engineering and manufacturing of custom battery packs” designed with specifics to meet the demands of different applications including electric vehicles, autonomous platforms, and in renewable energy components. Secured 3D is another one of the start up companies that focuses on creating software that protects your IP address when using 3D printers (where there is a large LAB for in the facility). The Start-up Studio Innovative Technologies and Business Systems Lab (ITBS) are available to both students and other interested parties “who research and study human beings using contemporary means and methods”.
MEETING SPACES
There are a variety of meeting, seminar rooms, work spaces, and kitchen space. A unique and interesting component of the facility is that international embassies in Estonia sponsor some of the spaces not only creating an international connection, but also design variety that may be a taste of home for 1100 international students from 70 different countries attending the university. Along with students having access to the rooms the embassies themselves will utilize the spaces for meetings. Among these are a Japan, Chinese, British, and of course the United States space. I was proud to see the flag of my home state, New Jersey, where President Ilves also grew up.
One of the meeting rooms that appealed to me, demonstrating strong biophilic design patterns was the Ericsson Connectivity Room (sponsored by Ericsson). Along with top of the line technology for meetings, it has images of nature on the ceiling and on window shades that are changed throughout the seasons. Along with formal conference room seating there is also stepped seating along the windows with pillows.
Some of the projects and collaborations with corporations occurring in the facilities included looking at electrical car usage potential and promotion within Estonia together with Mitsubishi through data mining, research and looking at policy measures. One lab has testing equipment that allows the monitoring, tracking and recording of a participant’s eye movements and focus used for looking at driving situations and also advertising.
Now for some of the other fun, unexpected spaces and details…..
Just down the hall from the Ericsson Connectivity Room is the “Botanical Garden”, designed together with the Tallinn Botanical Gardens, Nurban and Fagerhult an indoor green oasis with seating.
This space is also the home of the Ericsson Connected Tree the merging of technology and nature—it is a tree that senses changes in the electromagnetic field around it and then communicates through its Tweets. It reacts to people’s (and also the resident dog) presence and movements by playing music, speaking and changing the lighting.
MEKTORY also has its own urban bee farm or “Rooftop Sweet Factory” along with video coverage of the hives that produce according to Rasmus a very sweet honey.
The stairs encourage usage—reminding you of the calories burned taking the stairs.
In the basement there is a forest corridor that transforms you from an otherwise mundane corridor to a forest…
That as Rasmus says in the video..
Leads to the room of utmost importance in Estonian culture.. the Sauna
After touring MEKTORY, Hendrik also took us to see the TTÜ Liginullenergia testhoone (Nearly zero energy Test Building) which the same as MEKTORY was opened last year. Complying with passive building requirements this research-oriented prototype contains various technologies that can be used separately or in combination to test various building heating and cooling solutions and strategies. These include ground thermal pump with spiral and horizontal collectors, air-water thermal pump and air-air thermal pump. The heating and ventilation systems also include elements of heat recovery and various methods of solar heating for water including a plate collector and evacuated solar tubes. Various external wall assemblies were used for demonstration and testing.
It is amazing that these facilities just opened a year ago…it will be exciting to see what great things come from them!
See more images from our tour and the University campus at my FLICKR Album :
Tallinn University of Technology has one of the two architecture programs in the country, the other being at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The Architecture School is within the Faculty of Civil Engineering which houses the Departments of Architecture and Urban Studies, Building Production, Environmental Engineering, Logistics, Mechanics, Road Engineering, and Structural Design. The University offers 23 full time degree programs in English. The degree programs do not include architecture, but include programs within Economics and Business Administration, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering.
Find out more information at the following links: