Swirling in my head for many months I find myself gravitating towards creating a collaborative building. I am inspired by Catalytic Communities and the San Francisco Women's Building (which my friend Tracy helped to develop in the early 70s). And I am thinking about thrivability. How to create such spaces with thrivability at the core.
Thrivability, if you are not familiar, is about going on sustainability. If our current way of doing most things is unsustainable (a negative number) then sustainability is about reaching a neutral point(like 0) and thrivability is about going beyond (0 to a positive number).
I have several things in mind, then, for this space. And I would love and appreciate your help in developing the idea further.
- The space includes some co-operative housing piece. I don't know why we all need to buy our own kitchen utensils and mustard. Let's share. Besides, I will likely be funding a portion of this with my own money which is tagged for my domicile. Let me live there...with others. I would like a shared garden space if possible. This is something I will discuss with Julie Peterson of Beyond Today and Ted Ernst, of course. And yes, work with other Chicago Conservation Corp folks as well. :-)
- Nonprofit space. Some permanent and some flexible office spaces for nonprofits. Permanent space might be rented by the usual square foot. Flexible office space is about paying for membership to the space which gives members access to a desk, office supplies, a conference room, etc. It is not rent a sq ft. It is access to the whole of the flex office. Rent a square foot means that once that space is rented it can't be used by someone else. This wastes space when not in use and limits the membership. I want to have an opening for nonprofits to develop collaborations and partnerships, to become aware of each other, and to share learnings and resources. Reduce wasted expenditures like infrastructure costs by sharing them.
- For-profit space. A store, a cafe, something that can earn revenue. People that come into the space can learn about the nonprofits in the Collaborative Building, people coming to the nonprofits can get something to eat, nonprofit events can have a space for welcoming the public for larger events like book readings or speaking engagements.
To do this I need collaborators and champions. Please help refine the idea, suggest potential partners, be a partner.