After the core renovation, the Supermarkt der Ideen came back in a new and clean form: white walls, new installations, no traces of the past. That was what the building needed, but it also meant the space had lost its character. The users named this risk themselves. Asked what could go wrong, they answered: “Everything too finished, too few possibilities to shape it ourselves.”
The character had to be built again, and it had to be built together. The main task was clear from the start: better organisation. An open workshop where sewing, woodwork, laser cutting, events and coffee share one floor only works if everything has its place.
Analysing the space together
Building on the earlier phases of the participation process, I led a series of room-analysis workshops in February and March 2025, one for each area of the building: café and event space, the workshops, the digital workshop. Each session followed the same structure:
+ Movements: what work happens here, and which paths does it create?
+ Necessities: what is essential at this spot?
+ Wishes: what would you want if anything were possible?
+Atmosphere: how should this space feel?
+ SWOT analysis: the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of each room
The users drew directly onto the floor plans. They marked escape routes, sockets and power needs, and sketched where the reception counter, the cutting table and the storage should go. The results were very concrete: light at every workplace, lockable lockers, tables on lockable castors, extraction for the laser cutter, storage for sewing machines and fabric. Most of all, they wanted an atmosphere that was cosy, green, mobile and flexible, with a lot of wood.
Café. The café sits behind the large shop windows facing the street, and it is the Supermarkt’s front door. It should invite everyone in and never look like a place reserved for a chosen few. It works as a proper café first: you come in for a coffee, and from there the space opens up and shows you everything you can do in the open workshop. Through the windows, the street sees what is happening inside.
Event area and sewing workshop. This is the most flexible space in the building. Everything is either on castors or stored away in the shelving, so the room can change its use within minutes. When an event takes place, the chairs come out; the rest of the time, the room belongs to the sewing sessions.
Wood workshop. The largest area of all has to fit every machine and still stay clear and usable. The layout organises the machines, gives enough space for workbenches and material storage, and adds lockable wardrobes for the users’ own tools and projects.
Metal workshop. Here the task was mainly a precise layout: a floor plan that fits all the machines into the room so they can be used side by side.
Digital workshop and art studio. This room holds the computers, 3D printers and laser cutter. Its left part is kept free for drawing, painting and other creative work. Because this room also has a window to the street, we came up with the idea of placing the 3D printers in it. Printing becomes a small performance that passers-by can watch as objects grow layer by layer.
A break room and a meeting room at the back complete the floor plan.
The furniture that holds these rooms together rests on three elements.
Wood. Wood is the main material. It brings warmth and a natural element into the white room: shelves, wall storage, workbenches and mobile furniture on castors, which can be moved and reconfigured as uses change.
Red. A single colour from the Supermarkt der Ideen logo marks the places where the community comes together: the large community and cutting table of the sewing café, the chairs in the event area and on the street in front of the shop, and the work table in the digital workshop and studio space. Red is also the Supermarkt’s way of being recognised. When the Supermarkt der Ideen goes out into the city for an event, the red chairs go with it and carry the place wherever they are set up.
The Eurobox. The Eurobox is a typical workshop element for storage and organisation. Here it becomes a building block as well. Stacked and combined, it forms the main counter, benches, storage walls and even plant pots: quick to build, easy to change, and something the users can keep adapting themselves. The space is never “too finished”.
