Growing the Reef in Brussels: some initial thoughts on sustainability

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Thanks @shravan, appreciate the advice. [quote=“shravan, post:4, topic:8930”]
a space-first or community-first model.
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We are seeking here to serve different, partially overlapping communities in different ways. At the center of it all is the permanent residents, making a place to lead the lives we want. It so happens that we live and work out of the same space; this is efficient, because a co-working space is empty during the night, but at The Reef it can turn into one hell of a living room, or we can have parties in it. So, it makes sense to take on Edgeryders-the-company as a house mate, and serve the broader Edgeryders community (extra rooms for residencies, company events, seminars and whatever). Outside the door lies, of course, the neighborhood (Forest? Molenbeek?) and the whole city of Brussels, and it makes sense for that to be involved. It’s in the economics: doing what we do we generate positive externalities for the city/neighborhood at a negligible additional cost to ourselves.

They don’t care about spaces, or Brussels, or communal living. But they do care about uptake of climate change mitigation/adaptation-related innovation; and there are other entities with this kind of goal. If we position The Reef as a sort of testbed for in vivo prototyping of innovation for sustainable living, we can get them to find and fund innovators and their prototypes, which we then get to enjoy. For example, imagine that a medium term project is to disconnect from the electric grid. This will require a mix of artifacts (solar panels, batteries…) and social conventions (power-hungry activities and active climate control when the sun is shining, passive climate control and it is not). We function as a place where to test the mix, develop social conventions and evaluate the viability of these innovations; in return, they pay for the artifacts, which then remain at The Reef. This rids us of most capital costs related to these systems.

An important caveat is that we will probably need an initial important intervention to set up the infrastructure for these innovations (bathrooms, internal divisions, acoustic/thermal insulation etc.). This will be a little harder to sell, and require a framework agreement. But it’s worth doing. [quote=“shravan, post:4, topic:8930”]
repairs and maintenance, food and stationery office consumables, etc. to account for
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I agree only partially. The Reef does not buy food: people living in it do. Food is not centralized. So, it is a living cost for the residents, not for the building. Likewise, office supplies are purchased by Edgeryders (one of The Reef’s housemates), not by The Reef.

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I can see us baking activities happening here in many future projects. In fact, I already put it at the core of a proposal to UNLive Museum where we’d be a hub for sustainability popup events, and I can see how small residencies where people commit to activating the community could fit even our space now, let alone a bigger one.

Thanks a lot for reflecting on this. I remember one neverending conversation in Japan along these same lines :yum:

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Exactly. Once it’s there as a living space for its permanent residents, The Reef creates externalities for the company, the neighborhood, the city, the broader Edgeryders community etc. What Noemi is describing is how we internalize the externality to the company: it will bake the space into some of the things it does. This generates some revenue, and some of it can be funneled into maintaining the space. Result: cheaper, high quality space for both the residents and the company. This is the economic engine of the concept.

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I like the proposal and how you piece the puzzle together :slight_smile: Though also it seems to me that the investor does not get a good return in this setup. As there is no monetary ROI, it’s limited to finding somebody more like a donor organization or a client interested in green innovation.

If on the other hand there is a way to provide an investor with monetary ROI, it might be simpler to start it all. How about this: the investor purchases the building in the beginning, or is already identical with the landlord. He or she gets the (moderate) rent, but also invests money over the course of the rental period to buy the greentech stuff and for building modifications. The Reef tenants provide the work to develop and install this greentech stuff. The result is a building refurbished at minimal cost into a stylish solarpunk environment that the investor can sell with a profit when the rental period is over. The “downside” is of course that the interventions in the building have to be done in a more professional way than when just goofing around and experimenting for own uses only. That takes more effort.

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So this would not be covered by the “investment” or project money in the first instance.
The investor, in my understanding from Alberto’s model, gets to check assumptions or reach their organisational’s mission by investing in a full on project by an experienced community.

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Your proposal makes sense, Matt. The main issue here is trying to get a better deal for ourselves. This does not seem completely fair: you pay rent, improve the building, then the contract ends and the landlord has an improved building, and we have nothing. At the very minimum, the rental contract should be very long and bullet-proof.

In my proposal, the investor is not a real estate landlord, but a greentech provider, or a funder of such. Their payoff is tried-and-tested greentech solutions that can be resold on the market. So, a more attractive (for us) idea is: we broker the relationship between the building and this stream of investment, and get compensated for what we do by a combination of low rent and ownership of shares of the building (which you can think of as a company that own the building). If we can swing a fancy solar powered floor heating, our share of stock of that company goes up. Or something.

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Context across countries can be different, but in terms of the financier, you will need a similar type of donor organization or client interested in green innovation. You’re still asking for money to validate a concept so the risk profile of financier would likely be same as what @alberto has postulated.

It should be set up in a monetary ROI model and I do think the initial outline @alberto gave in the first post would be very possible to provide a return. Aside from validating a testbed for greentech activities as a return, which is certainly an interesting angle for an investor / donor if you can demonstrate scale of their future deployment, the activities you do in the Reef on a day to day basis - co-working, co-living, events, etc. can definitely provide you that monetary ROI.

We’ve set up properties on a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) basis where we pooled together individuals with some cash and capital, who we got along with, and who bought into the vision of what we were doing (this gets you a bit of discount in the return they are looking for :slight_smile:) for developing the property. They get capital + interest that is attractive as a stable bet but not exorbitant as their return over a period of 3 years.

Any model you go for you’ll need to figure out how to monetize the space. The more activities or the higher value you can associate to the activities of the space, the more you can make and thereby afford the ROI to your investors.

It’s an option aside from a donor fund, which I think would be the best no doubt. But I’m sure there are interesting moneyed individuals out there who will be keen on such a vision for sure :slight_smile:

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You mean capital = your investment in the building that raises its value or something else?

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Yes, in this context, capital is the financial investment they put in to start the project.

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Hi guys, I will be in Brussels this weekend for the Fearless Cities conference. Will any of you be there, and if not, can I meet any of the people who are in Brussels? I`ve been following the conversations on the platform, but I would love to meet people in person. All my best,
Ann

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Hi @anncassano, oh looking at the program I would so wish to be able to go…
I’m out of city but who knows, might be tempted to come back on Sunday :slight_smile:
Otherwise probably @yannick @ireinga @mariacoenen @manuelpueyo could be going…?

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@anncassano good to know! @mariacoenen and I are planning to spend some time there. Me, I can only do Saturday afternoon. Very happy to meet you! What workshops will you be attending?

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Interesting series of workshops on temporary urban occupation by the Brussels Academy for the next couple of months!

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Hello Everyone! I saw this post recently and yesterday i got an email with a community space opportunity opening up in brussels. i am not at all involved with this. i only share it because it is on topic. cheers. nice day.

text below is not mine…

This is something extraordinary: I was contacted by the responsible of a free1500 m2 office in the EU quarter. They are looking to offer this huge space to civil society in order to create an innovate hub. Coming Saturday, late afternoon, will be a brainstorming. In case you intend to participate, please inform the organisers (lenaerts.s@kbs-frb.be) of your presence. Ciao, your Frank

INVITATION

Imagine a temporary occupation in a 1500 m2 office floor in the heart of the European quarter, which could become a breeding ground for innovative ideas, a testlab for entrepreneurs and community groups or a dynamic hub for NGOs, in relation with the European construction.

Since we want this societal project to have an impact in terms of community building, in terms of new ways of working, in terms of coworking space and in terms of the image of the European quarter and the capital of Europe as a whole, we would like to invite you for a brainstorm in this office space to imagine with us the best suitable temporary (1,5 years or more) occupation.

If this topic interests you, if you have a great idea to share with us, if you want to contribute to the creation of the city of tomorrow, you are kindly invited for an informal brainstorm on Saturday 2 February from 16h till 18h in the office space in Rue d’Arlon 53 (or Rue de Trêves 84).

Looking forward to meeting you there!

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Hi Manuel, it’s been interesting to see you lurking around, as we probably all know each other personally from Brussels events and stuff but never got to spend time together!

This notification slipped completely on my end, so of course we missed the event,
While the EU hqs are not on our map when we think of the Reef 2.0, no pickiness here, and not now for sure :slight_smile: I think best is to email the organisers now to see where they are, just in case, right @alberto? I can do it.

How are you Manuel? What spaces are you involved with nowadays? Last I heard was about the one in Galeries Ravenstein, did that work out?

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Thanks @manuelpueyo … for the time being, I am the only person thinking about the Reef 2.0 (@mariacoenen being taken with other things), and I was travelling on Saturday 2, so I could not make it to your brainstorming. How did it go? Do you have an online document with the results of that session?

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Hello ! i did not go but i heard from isha from webrussels. she was there at the meeting. basically, what i heard: the space needs a bit of renovation, and it will be availiable for a very limited price. but they are looking for some collective who does the maintenance, facilitation of the ecosystem of ngos that could be using the space for coworking and events.
They will inform soon about the details of the conditions.
if you want to keep an eye on this write and email to sven and he will keep you on the loop.
Lenaerts.S@kbs-frb.be
Cheers!

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Hello Noemi. let’s meet soon for a catch up drink. i am working in a nice shared office closed to flagey (rue van elewyck), with a bunch of creative folks, and also sometimes I go to le phare du kanal. but i am not managing any space these days. i am more into content strategies, team building, content processes, and collaborating with webrussels. talk to you soon!

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@mariacoenen is this something you would look at?

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I just remembered a housing model that is a bit famous in Germany and that could be adapted for the Reef 2.0. Advantage: the Reef 2.0 organization would outright own the building from the start, not having to leave an “upcycled” house after 10 years or something. And the organizational form protects the building from ever being sold again to a profit-maximizing investor.

This model is called Housing Syndicate (“Mietshäuser Syndikat” in German). See their website, an outline of the organizational model and esp. their section about international projects.

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