The new Reef Brussels: shifting gear

Workspaces OCI Lab Conversations
#1

After over eight months, I declare the Reef Brussels prototype a success. Time to scale it it up and shift gear.

@mariekebelle has generously accepted to lead the effort of finding a new space in Brussels. Initial residents will be @nadia, @noemi, myself. @anique.yael has also stated interest.

Maria needs to collect the information to show to real estate agents and other Brussels folks that might help us find a space (@yannick, for example, has already pulled some strings). Can I ask Nadia and No to pull out some material? I am really swamped at the moment.

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#2

I am going to be back in brussels on the 21st and will be putting in significant effort to support @noemi and @mariekebelle moving forward. Plus its a great excuse to hang out with the fam :heart:

#3

All good to me. @mariekebelle & others, I made a first attempt at a flyer for a scouting campaign – have a look here?

I thought we keep it simple with our basic requirements- but anyone who has more real estate expertise, maybe I missed something? How do we say that we are interested in both 1 level house & 2 or more floors house?

After your edits, we would need:

  1. translation in French and Dutch
  2. @owen adding final styling & pushing it out

Hang in there, I’ll be back end of the month and looking forward to do this! But don’t wait for me of course. I’ll be mostly afk these weeks.

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#4

Also: Maria, try to get on Matrix, the software we use to do live chats in projects? @Matthias set up an edgeryders email for you and an invitation you should have gotten on your hotmail address… check please?

#5

I checked, but this was not yet done. I don’t think I was asked to do it, but no matter, I just did this now. I also confirmed that to @mariekebelle by e-mail incl. instructions for how to set the e-mail address up.

#6

Yes great that this is moving and interest from me indeed.

As an FYI @mariekebelle, we had a solid convesation with Sam, one of the founders of Communa at their portes ouvertes Saturday and I got a pretty good idea of how they’ve been approaching things. @alberto and I thought it could be interesting to see if they would be available to offer some of their experience as a service to this process, or even at a minimum we host them for a collective dinner at the reef to share ideas. Let me know if either interest you and I can follow up with Sam.

Otherwise, very happy to be a sounding board based on my own experiences in setting up collective live-work-create infrastructures. Thanks for taking the lead Maria and @noemi :mushroom:

#7

Hello all,

I still have you guys in the back of my mind when i look at spaces in Jette.
At the moment there is a conglomerate of food related projects ( a brewer, our fermentation production, a conserverie, a baker, a restaurant and a bar with cultural programmation are at the moment in consideration) , but it is still in early early development, learning the does and don’ts of the commune and so on.

-> this is the kind of space we are looking at: http://citydev.be/FR/inventdetail_v2.asp?leftMenuComplete=yes&idBien=12960&p=0&stradr=4176656E7565204F646F6E205761726C616E6420284A6574746529

Would be wonderful to have a project like edgeryders in that ecosystem to bring fresh thinking, coworking and coliving in the equatation. Will keep you posted if anything comes out, but good luck at finding the right place!

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#8

So I’ve just spent the last few days with the person behind New Eelam at the economic space agency workshops, and I think there could be some strong alignment with what OpenVillage and the reef is exploring.

In short they’re developing a real-estate technology company with network effects. Like a distributed evolution of a housing co-operative with a global roaming subscription. They’re exploring IoT and new forms of citizenship as well as local participatory budgeting projects and aquaponics.

I’ve had some long conversations with Christopher based on my own explorations in collective living and mobility, and of course because of my interest in what we’re exploring here. The project is still in early stages so there’s a lot of flexibilty and openness for collaboration. Christopher is very curious about Edgeryders and I can arrange a skype or meeting to talk more if there’s collective desire.

I also met Dylan who’s behind another model that could be worthwhile for us to explore/ collaborate with, EKA unity based out of an abandoned palace in Lisbon, and expanding ttrough a project called, yup, The Village.

I’ll share more on the ECSA workshops in a separate post as I think the xcellerator program could be particularly relevant, but wanted to seed specifically New Eelam here in case it can feed into what’s being scoped for the reef Brussels.

Ping @alberto @noemi @nadia @matthias @mariekebelle

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#9

Noted.

#10

I just wanted to share an update here in the interest of keeping gear shifts smooooth.

Firstly, my sublet will now continue until the end of June so wanted to keep you informed there (thanks for keeping that in mind @noemi lovely) .

Secondly, in the spirit of transparency, while I’m still enthusiastic to contribute to the reef’s evolution, I’m inclining towards it being in the form of space curation/ coordination and vision. The reasons being that
a) I feel more and more that I need to have some space between my work with Edgeryders and my own life, considering just how immense what we do together is; and
b) I’m increasingly interested in living in a French speaking home environment such that I can finally become fluent.

Neither of these reasons are set and hence why I share them here, in case both of them might be open to adaptation (Eg. a way in which the reef explores boundaries between work and life, and perhaps even a commitment to speaking in French in the home at certain times…).

In any case, I’m enthusiastic to contribute to its development and be involved.

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#11

I would also support some French at home (or work, even).

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#12

( @alberto MAIS OUI! :wink: )