CoWorking News » Creative Environments

Red Bull offers Free Coworking for Musicians in New York

Felix Schürholz — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:56:34 +0000

Red Bull calls it an academy, I would call it a mixture of music incubator and free coworking space. It is located in the Monahan Express Company Building on 18th Street in Manhattan. Red Bull Music Academy refashioned four floors (including the ground floor and basement) into a new kind of social space (see gallery for pictures). Architect Jeffrey Inaba describes it as: “different from a store, gallery or café …. When viewed from the street, people will see that this is a unique kind of social space. The walls are organized so passersby and guests can look across the ground floor and get a glimpse of the activities taking place inside.”

You can find more pictures on Arch Daily.

60 “free coworkers” were chosen through an application process. The academy and festival in New York, which consists of performances, lectures and workshops, runs from April 28th until May 31st.

According to PSFK: “Following the conclusion of the festival, the building will remain in use primarily as an office space, while also doubling as a creative haven to be utilized by artists of all kinds.”

We added the location to our free coworking directory.

Any more questions about free coworking and how you can enter your space and free coworking event please refer to our resource page: Free-Coworking.org

There is also a Facebook group you can join.

Please spread the word for free coworking so that more and more social capital will attract more financial capital!!!

Creative Environments for Coworking (Part5): St. Neots Creative Exchange

Felix Schürholz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:42:39 +0000

Sometimes everything looks great when you look at a building. A wonderful concept. Excellent ideas. An extremely unusual construction, but for some reason one gets the impression that something did not quite connect in the end. Where is the community? How do people use the building in practice? As I have no inside information, I can only judge by what I found in the internet. Is that first impression right or not? Has anyone been to this creative environment or knows something about it? Please share your experiences on this or similar projects by commenting below or sending us an email to redaktion@coworking-news.de .

The concept: “The building design brief specified the ambition to have a building that inspired creativity. The internal floor space is split into communal and workspace areas; balancing requirements to maximise space. Each floor has made inventive use of natural light with natural finishes and textures.” (Source: Creative Exchange)

External Aspect:”Outside space, communal areas, lighting and artistic form play an important role in creating the right ambience and environment for successful growth and cultivation of businesses. The external appearance of the building provides an impressive statement; encapsulating artistic form and a professional business environment.” (Source: Creative Exchange)

Internal Aspect: “The Creativexchange creates an inspiring image which businesses and students are proud to be associated with. We envisage the impressive design of the building will foster the exchange of creative ideas and assist the occupant business entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality.” (Source: Creative Exchange)

Enjoy this film! Think different! Engage in “Free Coworking”!

Felix Schürholz — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:49:58 +0000

Thank you Frigyes Fogel for your film “The (R)evolution – Cultural Creatives 1.0″ !!! (Thx Christopher Schmidhofer for sharing). Engage in “Free Coworking” and meet fellow Cultural Creatives.

The (R)evolution – Cultural Creatives 1.0 from Frigyes Fogel on Vimeo.

“Free Coworking”: It is free?! Yes, it is really free!!!

Felix Schürholz — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:45:44 +0000

We live in a very paradoxical world. We want most things for free: free internet, free music, free films. If it can be reproduced easily or it is digital, of course we want it for free. When it comes to collaboration a lot of people suddenly hesitate. Collaboration for free? No, that is not possible. Why is that? We are so used to being manipulated by nearly everything that is part of our daily life including ourselves that it takes a real effort to become free. Free of our outdated experiences? Just think, when it comes to expectations people have of you? How free you are? I like to show the video of the crowd starting dancer again:

Here is your chance to be a first follower. Join the “Free Coworking” Group and enter your “11 o´clock community challenge“. Dare to make a fool of yourself. You can only win!!! You win freedom, that is for sure. And on top, you might get some very useful creative input for your project. Freedom of choice :-))) Freedom to change :-)))

Creative Environments for Coworking (Part4): Entreprenörskyrkan (Entrepreneurs Church)

Felix Schürholz — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:18:19 +0000

Thanks to Mindaugas Danys we can present you the “Entrepreneurs Church” described in the article of arcticstartup. We believe this new coworking space which starts “extended” operation on the 10th of January with “Startup Tuesdays” fits very well into our series of creative environments with its motto: “have fun and play with ideas”. Three elements are particularly conducive to creative work. 1. Large Open Space: To widen the mind for new solutions you need space to develop several ideas at the same time. This happens not only on a physical, but also on a mental level. Literally we have to give space to our new ideas. 2. Multi-Level: For development the change of perspective is extremely important. How does our idea look from a different perspective (looking down from the first floor and vice versa)? Which dimension changes or is affected by our new idea? 3. Historic background: A building like this former church offers an unusual and provocative environment. Similar to the process of change of perspective, the provocation by new sets of meaning and association/dissociation brings about new insights.

On top of being a coworking space: “the building serves as a venue for events such as TEDx, pitch evenings, parties and even the occasional wedding.” Congratulations to Gustav Nisser, Jesper Lindmarker, Jesper Lejfjord and Petra Jonsson the four founders of this project!!! You truly created a “creative environment”!!!

Creative Environments for Coworking (Part3): Het Paleis Groningen

Felix Schürholz — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:20:11 +0000

We started on the theme of colours, and when you look at the first promo video of Het Paleis in Groningen (Netherlands), you could certainly think it is all about “alchemy“.

Yes, there is some “alchemy” built into the former chemistry lab of Groningen University, which is now the home of about 100 creative companies. The right ingredients need to be transformed into real life offers, see promo video two.

And what you get is a complex structure of studios, fablab, conference rooms, brasserie, hotel, appartments etc.
Here people can live, work, eat and celebrate creativity!!!

Creative Environments for Coworking (Part2): Catalyst Ranch

Felix Schürholz — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:02:33 +0000

At the start of the series I like to stay it little bit more on the theme of colours. Colours are very important as they provoke an emotional response. Combining a wide range of colours in an unusual setting will certainly lead to new and fresh ideas. It might not be everyone´s taste, but once in a while it is very useful to leave the own “colour scheme” to reach new continents of thought and method. (Warning: You might feel tempted to put on your sun glasses while watching the following video of “Catalyst Ranch in Chicago“, to protect your eyesight ;-). Try to resist this reflex :-)))

I would also like to invite your participation. Suggest your favourite creative coworking space or describe the creative elements in your coworking space that you like best. Comment below or send an email with pictures that we can publish in one of our next articles in this series to redaktion@coworking-news.de .

New Series: Creative Environments for Coworking

Felix Schürholz — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:01:04 +0000

As a change agent for creativity and coworking I believe it is time to take coworking to the next level. As their are some spaces that are very beautiful and inspire creativity, there are some that are happy to offer not much more than a chair and a desk. Sitting and writing is very important, but there is a lot more required to enable a coworking space to be creative as a whole. In this series I like to look at all aspects that foster individual as well as group creativity in a coworking space. When people think of creativity very often they think of colours or a colourful environment. Colours are very important as they provoke an emotional response. We need to be in tune with our emotions when we want to be creative as individuals. More importantly we need to be aware of our emotions if we want to relate to and create successfully with our coworkers. The wider the ranger of colours in our environment, the wider the range of emotional responses. Natural colours and natural materials usually offer a wider range of tones or colour shades than artificial ones.

A proponent of this style of natural shades is the photographer Paul Barbera. On his site “Where they create” he presents pictures of creative environments of mostly artists and designers. You can take the natural approach even further when you look at the work of Patrick Blanc with his Vertical Garden. A conceptual opponent with a complete artificial creative environment would be something like Second Life. Second Life translated in the real world would probably look something like Google Office. No, I am just kidding, it is not about right or wrong, nice or ugly. It is not about personal taste. What is most important is that the environment fits the task and the people involved.