I would go for the domes, with a 3 month lease (3.5 if possible). Reasoning:
Of course, I defer to Matt and Nadia’s judgment.
I think the one that most of us seem to like the dooms, for me it offers a lot of flexibility in terms of living/working spaces plus a good place for the festival. /
since the owners seems to be living in Belguim, can someone with a European phone and currently in Europe call ( no roaming now I suppose ) just to get an idea if this is possible or to filter this out, as their website states a high price per night, and to see if they are willing to rent it for 2.5 month or not.
as a step to filter the candidates, ( because there is a possibility for them to refuse and rent it for smaller period of time for a high price. )
I got that wrong. It’s actually in a small fisherman village a bit to the north of Sidi Kaouki. See the updated description, which have many more details now (satellite images, owner info, …). What does that do to your opinion?
My proposal for a shortlist (to go through from top to bottom, renting the first space that fits our budget and time window):
Eco Domes. Reasoning: lots of space for the festival. Most aligned to the OpenVillage “DIY great life” vision due to dry toilets, water-recycling shower, solar water heater, geodesic domes – it fits the image for outreach / prototyping of an OpenVillage house. Great separation of living and working spaces, with the big living room being the co-working space. Also, private beach 
Might even be possible to negotiate a longer / recurring collaboration with the owners. Disadvantages: Quite a bit outside of Essaouira. We will need to set up a shuttle service or get us electrical bicycles …
Cap Sim House. Because it’s a great place close to Essaouira (means: closer to shops, to more people and to more “fun stuff”). (Edit 2017-10-02: It’s instead close to Sidi Kaouki, and close to the Eco Domes house. Corrected in the description since, and see the resulting updated list due to this correction.)
E.S. house. Because, practical, affordable and cute.
L’Air De La Mer house. Great and good, but probably too big / too expensive for us (“can fit 25 people”) so the E.S. house is preferable, if available. (Both are inside Sidi Kaouki.)
Comments, esp. @nadia and @unknown_author? I’d like us to start going through a shortlist like that, so we need the list first
For reference, Nadia just said about this via Messenger chat:
[quote=“nadia”]Ecodomes for sure!
All of them work and agree with order. Great finds[/quote]
So we’re all (Nadia, Hazem, Alberto, me) aligned about the Eco Domes. Means, we’re going ahead with tring to rent the Eco Domes. (@unknown_author also likes the Eco Domes a lot, but seems to prefer Cap Sim House.)
We are all outside of Europe, there is no one at The Reef. @hazem call them through Skype if need be.
It looks like a nice tourist place - super chill, pretty, and I presume a good net connection.
My concern about the domes is, where can you make stuff and make a bit of a mess in the process?
Good point … it will not be much of a need during the prototype due to the shortness of time and lack or permanence, but I’d love to have that option.
Looking at the satellite images of the compound, it seems that either on the compound, immediately outside of it in “no man’s land” or in one of the half-finished surrounding buildings there should be a place for this.
This is not ideal of course – not an industrial space. But much easier to find an option in this sparsely populated village than, say, in the old city quarters of Essaouira.
+1 for the domes, such interesting find! The space looks like it’s been well thought through and designed already… I was thinking the same as John: Can we move things around and bring (ie biohacking) equipment?
Also, I know it is your decision guys, but if I were you I would do all I can to ensure that if needed we will be able to stay there for more than 3 months. If there’s anything we learned from matera, our Brussels space and other projects is that team building and planning takes a lot of time. projects and prototyping can be delayed while people new to a space are trying to adjust.
@matthias i big yes for the domes from me. Seems like it ticks many boxes. Also agree with @johncoate view around the length of time it may take to bed in. Go for longer if possible to give more flexibility
Update to the first version: I am switching the position of E.S. House and Cap Sim House. In the first version, Cap Sim House was preferred because I was thinking it’s close to Essaouira – it is not, as it is located close to Sidi Kaouki instead, and close to the Eco Domes house (updated in the description as well). Seems like an obvious change, esp. since Cap Sim House also seems “a bit too luxurious” for our budget and purposes So:
@nadia @unknown_author: If anyone disagrees, please tell. Until then, we’re treating this as our agreed shortlist now.
updates :
Eco domes - negotiations failed.
E.S house - negotiations in progress
Cap Sim - not available at this period of time,
Do you have any details on when they are available? (No need to go back to the landlord for that now if you don’t have them. Can wait until E.S. House negotiations fail, which they hopefully won’t.)
Edit: Adding in updates received from Hazem in Matrix chat:
I can reach them again via whatsapp ( they are responsive for calls and whatsapp) but what the message I received they will be using it and can’t rent for longer terms
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مجرد اقتراح حازم لماذا لاتكون مشروع القرية المفتوحة فكرة موحدة تطبق في جميع المناطق التي تقام بها ويمكن اضافة اشياء تتناسب مع المنطقة وان توزع الاعمال على جميع القرى مثال على القهوه من كاندمال ممكن تسويقها وبيعها في جميع القرى وان تأخذ علامة تجارية موحدة وهو تصميم الشعار ان يكون اديجريدز على كل ماتنتجه هذه القرى من اعمال
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