The HuB

The HuB is an urban regeneration project by architect Andrea Boscolo that aims to create a place for meeting, working and training in the city of Mestre, in the province of Venice. 

It stems from an idea by Prossimi Impresa sociale ETS and Fablab Venezia and has seen the restoration of a historic building in the city (a former printing house located in a 1925 building) and the involvement of over 20 local and national institutions, organisations, companies and businesses.

Officially inaugurated in October 2025, the HuB houses classrooms and rooms dedicated to the activities of local institutions and organisations, a large co-working area with offices and meeting rooms, as well as the headquarters of the two companies that conceived it.

Such a complex and multi-functional organisation needed an access system that was extremely flexible and easy to manage, but also guaranteed the right level of security. 

Key requirements:

• Easily manage access for a large number of people who use the building at different times and on different days.
• Facilitate access for employees and guests who use training rooms or co-working spaces on a temporary or permanent basis.
• Avoid the problem of keys being lost by employees or not returned by guests.

Solution

With the advice of the ASSA ABLOY Italia sales team, the SMARTair^® digital access control system was chosen for the HuB. 

The SMARTair TS1000 management software was installed in the Update on Card version: each user is issued with an electronic card that allows them to access all areas of the building for which they have access authorisation.

For the HuB, i-reader wall readers were installed next to the building's three perimeter doors and the pedestrian gate in the courtyard, allowing quick and easy access and avoiding the need to issue duplicate mechanical keys, which can be difficult to recover if lost or not returned.

The Update on Card option allows building managers to add or delete users and credentials instantly. If access rights need to be changed, simply enter the new settings in the TS1000 software and they will be loaded onto the cards the first time their owner revalidates them on a specific encoding device.

SMARTair also allows you to programme cards for a set period of time, with a start and end date, and to set specific times for access to the building. This makes it easy to segment access for everyone so that each person can only enter when they are authorised to do so. This allows access cards to be issued to guests even a few days before the set period of use of the facility.

«The ASSA ABLOY solution for the three separate entrances in three pedestrian areas of The HuB – Human Bits in the heart of Mestre offers us, the managers of City HuB, the ability to control three types of users simultaneously: our staff, our guests and suppliers, and co-workers who independently access the facility from their own reserved entrances», says architect Andrea Boscolo, designer and co-founder of Fablab Venezia.

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ph. credits: ^©Andrea Boscolo/Fablab Venezia