CoLAB: The Borough Bridge
An ARUP × RCA service design project on urban transition
Client · Arup X RCA Challenge Lab
Industry · Urban Systems
Team · Kishan, Piotr, Hans, Shravani, Parul & Bosky
My Role · Service Designer, Researcher, Strategist
Methods · Field research, hypothesis testing, business model canvas
Timeline · 3 months, Nov 2023 – Feb 2024
Outcome · A validated service model · three hypotheses tested, one open
ARUP came to us with the brief of how do we create just transition in the city of London? A three-month service design project with the Royal College of Art's Challenge Lab.
We connected three facts no one had joined up.
The Challenge
We chose to focus on the city's 757,000 freelancers. The shift to independent work is one of London's largest, quietest transitions and almost no public infrastructure has kept up.
A glimpse of the process
Conversations with freelancers, council officers and co-working operators across Lambeth, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest gave us the language we needed and one line that defined the project: "This is just what freelancing is. You hustle. You commute. You cope."
The insight
The pattern was hard to miss once we named it. London has 442 council-owned vacant buildings. 65 are office-ready today. 757,000 freelancers want local workspace and most live in outer boroughs where almost no co-working exists. Three datasets, three different conversations, no one bridging them.
The design response
We treated the project as four bets to test, not a solution to defend. We proposed CoLAB - The Borough Bridge: a borough-centric workspace, powered by council buildings, paid for in skills rather than rent.
The impact
Three of four hypotheses validated through fieldwork across four London boroughs
8 strangers, 90 minutes, 1 prototype proved diverse local collaboration in a single workshop
Service model + business model canvas delivered to ARUP and RCA
Key takeaways
The opportunity was sitting in three datasets nobody had bothered to connect.
We went in with bets to test, not a solution to sell - that changed everything we were willing to hear.
People don't just want to work locally. They want to matter locally. Belonging through contribution is the deeper need - and why the council relationship matters more than the desks.
A good model on paper still needs someone to believe in it enough to run it.
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A deeper dive into the research, systems thinking & strategic outcomes.
