In 2009 we pioneered coworking in Manila and trashed the office cubicles beloved at the time by Regus and outdated hierarchies embraced by many corporations across the Philippines. In 2011 we rather lazilly called ourselves “A SPACE” (just a space for fun people) and accidently started the coworking movement in the Philippines. Since then our Members and collaborators number among the most original thinkers and doers in the country. We’ve been creating, crafting, and inventing original spaces and experiences for a decade. This is what we love to do.
Since the arrival of Covid though, we’ve experienced the near collapse of our business, tragedies within our families, and the erosion of community energy as we knew it. Wow, what a couple of years. For us it prompted stark and radical change. We’ve always created workspace that recharged us instead of drained us, and social space with more meaning than just alchohol and beats. With our new project we move beyond our most creative coworking design into a world of possibilities packed with purpose, fueled by passion and necessity. We’ll work together, learn together, and shape our city together.
At the heart of this change is a greater confidence that offices are outmoded, and the hybird habits that we have long embraced – the privilege of working from home, from ASPACE, from the pool, or from a café – is more closely aligned with our human preferences. What’s more, if we could only encourage a culture that energised us at work, and connected us socially with the best of each other, amplifying the ideas and causes we champion.
You work and you play, and you sustain positive change along the way. That has become our starting point for this next phase in our evolution, a space where just by being present we contribute more, and benefit from the change wrought by this pandemic.
