When Gentrification Goes Right: The Wonderful LX Factory of Lisbon in Full Flight!
One of the highlights of the trip to Lisbon for me was going to the LX factory, a wonderful fairly old industrial plot near to the coast line and obviously zoned away from the city, not hard to get too really by uber for little under 5 euros from the centre of the city, I’m sure you could go even cheaper by bus if you got used to the route.
you can check out http://coworklisboa.pt here if your interested in checking out the venue, the place is super reasonable, I mean 100 euros a month for a table and wifi is a really sweet price right?! — you can follow them on twitter too here — Fernando Mendes (@coworklisboa) on Twitter
We had a bit of a wander around the area around it just to see what spots there were to be fairly near to this co-working mecca. lots of spots for vans to park up, stealth camp, maybe even get a fairly cheap rent or apartment near to the complex, that sunshine and food got me super attracted to it, felt like a super reasonable boxpark (London) and even thou we probably couldn’t afford to eat in the places daily we could certainly be in their at the end of the months celebrating our projects.
The blockchain hackathon was hosted in the LX Factory, top floor in a co-working space, usual great vibes, layout, old sofas, open deck, a smell of a super fresh Nepalese temple ball hash wafting through the windows, a place that you can tell had been taken back and worked on over many years to be presented in the current format, taking the old and laying on the creative new, it felt like it had met it’s creative match.
that food truck and van life dream
The whole place was an instagrammers dream, in fact most places styled like this are smart in that the vibe and imagery promote the place automatically because people are always gonna be geo tagging, taking photos, sharing it on social media and such like and I was surprised at the general population that was attracted too it at the weekends, lots of people wandering around the market. Lots of food, art, the usual hipster style faire of all things and I think if you were a local you could certainly have your apartment styled within a few trips — it was a visual delight.
It’s not secret that me and dayle are certainly chasing down that van life, right now we are in static land and we are struggling to get make payments to just be here, but we wake up everyday (eventually) and get going, after lots of hugs and sighs and coffee we reboot and get going again, I can so see us being more full of energy and clarity typing away from our laptop computers in the van, visiting carparks like the LX factory for weeks at a time would be very much on our list of things to do.
We have spoken many times of having a little food truck business with me flipping and making breakfast burritos in the back, cheaply, also taking bitcoin or steem for those hungry digital workers and @dayleeo getting exact on the coffee process timing that pour in the front, smiles from each side just covering enough each day to do it but with a lovely set of videos, pictures and audios when the day is done — the idea (dream?) is with us everyday, every week. We are focusing hard on the reality, right now I’m between what’s now and next and I keep seeing electric vans popping up on my emails and time line.
Lisbon got it Right, But it Can be So Wrong!
Around five years ago I was in a major city here in the uk, I won’t say which one because I’m still angry about the place and that I ended up having conversations with the creative quarter from a very much ‘deal’ culture perspective. They did everything they could to control the creative/vocal narrative to output a style (middle class, hipster) and if you were outside of that realm or even in anyway non positive to the way things worked you were demonised outside of the reach of the funding and power of the people that be — the whole management team were men, self appointed, self righteous, biggots, control freaks. You know the type I’m sure.
In the end I left, I tried to integrate, I tried to share the aspect of the digital studio I had made, got local creatives in for interview but I got no help or funding to take it to the next stage. i imagine it’s the way that current milk farmers in the uk feel, producing product and getting paid well under value for it as the super markets purchase in bulk. Maybe the LX factory was not an easy thing but because it’s now established, accepted by the local community, thriving, as it looks right now, six years later i have to hope that eventually these gentrification projects work.
I’m sure it’s a cultural thing as well, the current iteration of the LX factory seemed very welcoming for all people, didn’t seem that it was a just a hipster vibe even if some of the shops were styled that way, maybe it’s just a people thing in general. I felt like everyone was accepted here regardless of who was in your social circle — maybe it’s just the vibe of Lisbon too, the layout of the city, the supposed feeling of freedom and openness, the drug policy of the country seem relaxed and it seems that people have just got on with designing the environment they want to live in — I’m sure that it has main players that control the workings and the operations of the site but it does seem like they have at least the bravery to allow people to try.
it was not lost on me that I saw another ’54’ on site, it could have been quite easily been my studio sitting in there, I’d have to change up the retail side to make sure it could sustain itself I’m sure, I’d be interested to know how much things on site — I could so live nearby to this place!
the commute to the co-working spaces
Once on the road I think that the co-working spaces of towns and cities will become one of our major junction points for working from, not only do they give us great spaces to grab food and drink from they are perfect for blogging from both visually and mentally and to be around other creative workers and make those friendships and relationships outside of laptop pushes make day to day digital life worth living otherwise it just becomes a replacement of cubicle life.
I could certainly see myself back at LX factory in the near future. Now I know it’s easy to jump on a plane from London for around £100, grab an uber into the city or even directly there for around £10 and then investigate that hostel on site, get a pass for the co-working it makes it an easy choice for even just dropping funds on a plane to visit and I’m sure there are many places across europe that are laid out in the same format.
Portugal is well and truly on the list now of places in Europe that I want to revisit many times and see everything, maybe drive around the country a little more to get used to the country and find some of those golden little places, maybe look at land and resources and certainly spend some more time at a co-working space done properly — well done to LX Factory for creating an inviting, efficient and well tuned engine of a rebirth of a space for a new generation! :)
Sounds great & yup I agree, it's often not done right. Damn...I wish I had got to see that place, but I wanted surfing more on the Saturday. I've had visions of doing some sort of project like that here in the city I'm living in (Birmingham)... there's lots of industrial buildings lying empty. Another case for an ICO to fund it? :)
I totally agree, often they can be little more than middleclass hipster twatfests. And yup the grey-faced whitemen seem to be in positions of power. There's a place here 'innovation Centre' https://www.innovationbham.com/ which is exactly like you described....& like the opposite of innovation. They aren't interested in anything crypto / bitcoin / blockchain of course! It's like a con-game where the boring old men know how to get the funding, play the system & stifle actual innovation & creativity. My plan would be: provide the space & resources...then get the hell out of the way & let people do their thing... I reckon you could do £20/month deal for desk space & wifi.
Here's the board, says it all really: https://www.innovationbham.com/board-members
yeah you won't ever get me in a uk city for co-working ever again! just new spin on bullshit old blokes in grey suits that need to die and move outta the way for fresh ideas ;) - i certainly think the laid back approach and smart thinking and different behaviour of the audience that was visiting the place seemed to the difference. we have a bunch of weird folk here! :)
I'm so glad you put a post together about this, because It definitely feels like a place we're both being drawn back to. Feel like there are possibilities there, unfinished BIZNESS. <3
I'm gonna sound stupid here...but what is this coworking space?
google 'coworking spaces' - it's like an office where creatives work but the pricing is kinda loose, so like i can get a desk/table pick any for like 100 euros a month. it's like a cooler office than leasing an office and it's mainly creative/digital businesses --- this one in lisbon was part of one of the venues while we were at steemfest and it was a good one.
ah, thank you! :D sounds awesome! I come out in hives when people talk about offices... (shiver) lol but this sounds pretty cool
yeah hate offices, this was super open plan, relaxed, great food, great vibe, music, relaxed, i love co-working spaces, it's the places i can get all my digital work done easily.
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