We have visited and worked in a countless amount of coworking spaces along the years, and almost by chance we grew very fond of places where people do good things together. We’re so into these places where you can meet people, create a community and learn new things, that we have even designed and built a few of them ourselves.
From Espaço Ó — a 4000 m2 collaborative space in Óbidos, Use — a shared workspace in Caldas da Rainha, Tela — a shared space for artistic creation, painting school & gallery to Ground, an open source design system for collaboration spaces.
Well, looks like nothing’s enough for us! In order to learn even more about spaces where collaboration happens and to find the features that make these places special (to break the anticipation; turns out, time after time, it is the people), we teamed up with Mushrooming, an online service that lets you discover coworking spaces and creative professionals, and did two road trips; one to Lisbon and another to Porto.
Interest creates interest
We decided to go on a tour in Lisbon and this is how it all happened.
First we started with a post on Facebook, asking for recommendations for places to visit. This post sparked a lot of interest and worked as an aggregator to many conversations about the tour and possible spots. So many actually, that we knew we could not possibly visit all of them in just one day.
The next step was to create an event on Facebook to plan the tour and to keep communicating with everyone interested. We did a poll to vote for the 5 places we would visit and continued communicating before and during the tour. Here we posted live videos during the day, Instagram photos and stories, updates about our whereabouts and images from our day in Lisbon.
The pioneers of coworking in Lisbon
We knew we couldn’t have a proper tour in Lisbon without inviting the father of coworking, Fernando Mendes, to join us. He founded one of the first cowork spaces in Portugal in an old factory site that has today transformed into one of those busy metropolitan blocks full of trendy shops, bars, companies and activities. Today Coworklisboa is eight years old and thriving with hundreds of coworkers.
Not a place to miss while in Lisbon!
The best view from the toilet in the whole city
Amazing location and ever growing space makes Cowork Central an amazing spot to work. It offers both residents and occasional users a very international setting with a whiff of the history of Lisbon. Besides creating an active community in and outside the office hours, Cowork Central has the greatest view while doing your necessities :) (You have to go and check it for yourself).
A luxurious greenhouse on top of one of the oldest markets
With a very exclusive and special concept, Second home has created their location into one of the coolest spots in Lisbon. It is a workspace concept with spaces in London and Lisbon carrying bright colors, bare industrial architecture and big open space divided only with plants as their signature marks. There’s even a healthy cafe and a library at the lobby with cozy sofas for working and meeting people. It is found on top of one of the hottest food spots and one of the oldest fish and vegetable markets in the city. Second home organizes both cultural and wellness events regularly for their residents and it is an social business, where the residents nurture taking care of each others.
The coolest grannies in town
A designer Susana Antonio, the co-founder and creative director of “A avó veio trabalhar”- project (Grandma comes to work), leads a group of sweet (and sassy) grandmas to push their limits.
This is a project of learning, sharing and empowerment which mixes with traditional workmanship and hip and modern design, increasing seniors’ power of intervention in society.
The project has won “The Best Idea of the Year in 2015 I Time Out Lisboa”- prize and now it has got a sequel in form of a empowerment project for the grandpa’s also.
This community organization turns the old into the new young in its living- roomy work and shop space.
It is always great to step into a public space that is warm and cozy, messy and full of life and laughter. Checking their instagram is a must!
A palace for artists
A discreet building that leaves you in awe. A big courtyard invites you in with an intimate restaurant with fresh produce and healthy/ vegan options. Stepping few stairs up, you’ll meet a team that really works and gives their best to help artists to grow their wings. While residing in Polo Cultural Gaivotas, creative professionals can dedicate their time in developing their art with amazing conditions — rooms equipped for practice and production for all forms of art and creative processes in the city.
A diverse arts programme with its events in the summertime, actualized in the patio, must be the best!
As an artist, you can apply to spend some months in this nest too!
The walls are built of people
It’s not possible to spend a bad day in Lisbon, and the stunning city didn’t let us down this time either. We got rain and we got sun (2799 hours annual average sunshine), we got crowds and a quiet corner (Portugal has a café or two in every corner). The spaces we visited we’re all very different from each others, but you could trace one common factor;
The community. The people that work around you, that you share your lunch with, that you turn into when you need advice, help or even a partner for your project. It is them who make a great space.
Links:
Read the second part of our tour here: Common Places Tour — Porto
This post was originally posted on Mushrooming’s blog.
We are Komuhn. A team designing and building ideas towards impacting the world in a positive way.
