SINFO: Poligon creative centre: Promoting the idea of youth employment in creative economies, social entrepreneurship and culture

Photo: 360mag.si

(SINFO) At the premises of the old Ljubljana tobacco factory, a new creative centre called Poligon has opened. It offers opportunities for creative work to members of Slovenia co-working, Slovenia crowd-funding (crowd-sourced fundraising), Rompom and Ljudje.si initiatives. More than half of the Centre’s capacities were leased out in a month, but demand remains very high. 


Poligon is the first creative centre in Slovenia. Its operation and leasing of space will be financed from the rent for the working premises. In addition to the open desk working stations in the common space, Poligon makes available 70 working posts, including individual offices. Most of the latter have been leased out, but 25 working posts remain in the common space. The Centre can accommodate up to 300 people, as the space can be used from morning till evening. There have been ideas to extend the Centre to the neighbouring premises, which are currently unoccupied.

The first creative centre in Slovenia

Poligon is the first creative centre in Slovenia. Its operation and leasing of space will be financed from the rent for the working premises. Poligon is intended particularly for those young people for whom self-employment is the only means of ensuring survival. They need an open platform to develop their projects without having to submit three business plans before starting work.

The British council supports this interesting project, which
 is meant to bring together creative people in ljubljana,
Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje. Photo: 360mag.si

Those renting a desk working station in Poligon on a permanent or temporary basis pay 95 euros a month and are given ‘resident’ status. An annual subscription of 35 euros gives you the status of a friend. Exchange with co-working group members from abroad will be encouraged through the so-called co-working visa. Holders of these visas will be able to exchange his/her desk working station and a flat for a couple of days, a month or even longer with a counterpart from a friendly co-working area. This means that they will have the chance to work either in Berlin, Vienna, Paris or somewhere else. In Slovenia, they will be accordingly ‘exchanged’ for a creative person from abroad.

Working methods

Poligon is based on a method of co-working which will be further upgraded by creative people through various contents. They will be intended for permanent and temporary users. Poligon has two specialised labs: the Maker Lab, focusing on 3D printing, and the Crowd-funding Lab for preparing crowd-funding campaign projects. In addition, relevant content-based programmes will be designed for the community in order to improve its knowledge and skills and provide for further professional development.

Poligon will also have a library and shop containing the works of Slovenian designers and items successfully developed with the help of Slovenian crowd-funding campaigns.


The article was published by Tanja Glogovčan in SINFO Magazine - March 2014 edition.

Offical website of Poligon: http://www.poligon.si/en