A shared space for citizens to rebuild the commons

Welcome at the Commons Hub Brussels, a brand new, shared space in the city center of Brussels where we can grow a community and learn how to common.

Are you part of a community that is organising regular meetups, events, workshops? Are you looking for a coworking and cocreation space that is stewarded by and for the members? Then this might be the space for you. Reach out to us or join the Whats App group below to stay informed!

Or if you prefer sending an email: hello@commonshub.brussels

Events

How can you contribute to the Commons Hub?

The Commons Hub is in the seeding phase: we are just getting started. 🌱 🔥

That said, we are here for the very long run. This place has to outlive all of us, it is here for the future of Brussels.

We are already organising some events and running experiments in the summer (https://regenvillage.brussels), we hope to open the co-working area officially on September 1st.

Yet, we are still looking for courageous commoners to join the founding forces team.

How can you contribute at this very moment?

  • Join the community by becoming an investor. Contribute financially and invest in the Commons Hub. This initial fundraising will help us furnish the place, pay for the fire insurance and other admin costs, buy some coffee and tea essentials and give us a head start.

  • Join the community by becoming a member, either a supportive member or a coworker. Members contribute with time and money, in order to make the space as accessible as possible. The more time you contribute to the project, the less you pay for using the space. Our governance model is inspired by sociocracy, so we are laying the first foundations for working groups and circles.

  • Join the community by becoming a partner. Are you a collective, did you start an initiative that has regular meetups or is in need of meeting space? Reach out to us to know more about our partnerships. leen@commonshub.brussels

  • Help us build a knowledge base and add your resources on commoning, regen economies, inspiring places here. Do not hesitate to upload articles in the folder. 🙏

If you feel a strong pull and would love to invest either time or money, but you still have questions, reach out to leen@commonshub.brussels 🙏

About `

The Commons Hub is a space where we will hold the questions of our time and context high and alive. Our world is changing and we need a paradigm shift on many levels. Is private ownership still the best way forward? How do we share resources we all need access to, like space for working together and organising gatherings. Where can I find a home for my collective/initiative, with limited budget?

Often there are more questions than answers. In this space we will explore different topics on recreating commons and regenerating our local economy and our environment. The Commons Hub positions itself within the wider ecosystem of builders, thinkers, creators, facilitators, active citizens, teachers and artists that ask the question: what else is possible? There will be plenty of space for experiment, conversation and reflection and we dream of a space that is buzzing with creativity while at the same time offering time and space for stillness and deep work.

With building the Commons Hub Brussels we practice moving from

  • Privatising space to sharing space: the space will be our common resource, how do we steward and manage this shared space together? How do we all become crew?
  • Transactions to conscious relationships and communities: how do we nurture the relationships and the community in this space? How do we develop a culture of mutual care?
  • Monoculture space to hybrid space: how can we welcome professional as well as informal activities in the space and create a relationship with the neigbourhood?

What is a common?

The space is here for you, be there for the space 🏡

Read more in the slide deck (that is still very much under construction)

📍How to get there?

Address: Rue de la Madeleine 51, 1000 Brussels (map)

🚲 Best way to come is by public transport (we are just in front of Central Station) or by bike.

🚉 If you come from outside of Brussels, best is to take the train till Central Station and leave the station via the back entrance (the one towards Brussels Midi)

FAQ

Who do we welcome in the space?

Active citizens  that are working on, or active in, the wide ecosystem around these topics:

  • Moving from sustainability to regeneration
  • Rebuilding the commons
  • Cooperatives and Digital Cooperatives (aka DAOs)
  • Community Land Trust (CLT)
  • Collective ownership
  • Democracy, citizen Assemblies & participation
  • New governance
  • Permaculture
  • Regenerative economy (doughnut, circular, …)
  • …

What does it mean to become a member of the Commons Hub?

The Commons Hub will operate as a cooperative. This means that as a member you will contribute financially and with time. We manage the space together and share the responsibility to make the Commons Hub thrive.

In practice this means that we will create together a huge todolist to keep the space up and running. As a member you will take up a shift per month to help manage the space. This can be opening the space on Monday morning and make coffee and tea, cleaning the hallway or the windows once a month, joining one of the circles, facilitating the general assembly, writing the newsletter, etc etc.
For the financial part it means that you pay a fee per month to use the space as your coworking or meetup space.

Since we are in the seeding phase of the project, we are still working on financial picture. Do not hesitate to reach out if you have expertise with setting up cooperatives. 🙏

What can the space be used for?

We start with the first and second floor of a multi-story building, good for 435 m2 of space to get creative with. The space holds opportunities for gatherings and events for up to 100 people (in the big front rooms) and has several smaller rooms that we can turn into meeting rooms, coworking areas, silent meditation/yoga rooms, chill out spaces and community dinner areas.

The goal of the project is collective ownership of the whole building, but that might take us a couple of years. There is a ground floor that will become a restaurant, and two more floors up for coliving and working.

Which spaces inspire us while building the Commons Hub Brussels?

What is a commons?

A commons is a piece of land, a building or space that belongs to everyone in a community. In the city a commons might be a public area (park, building, square, …) that is available for gatherings or celebrations. In our case, we are slowly turning a private space into a commons, a space we will use and steward together. Elinor Ostroms (Nobel Prize Winner in 2009), with her Eight Design Principles to manage a healthy common, is our main source of inspirations to guide us in the process.

What books and models do we consult while building the Commons Hub Brussels?

  • Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein
  • Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
  • Regenerative Leadership by Laura Storm and Gill Hutchins
  • The Future of Money by Bernard Lietaer
  • Who do we choose to be by Margaret Wheatley
  • The age of Thrivability by Michelle Holliday
  • Many voices one song, sociocracy manuel by Jerry Koch-Gonzalez and Ted J Rau
  • Reinventing organisations by Frederic Laloux
  • The Ecological Organisations Framework by Anna-Marie Swan
  • Elinor Ostroms 8 design principles for building a common

We are currently fiscally hosted by Citizen Spring ASBL.

The lease has been contracted by Leen and Xavier via their company XL Collective SRL.

This is temporary. Our goal is to create a cooperative as soon as possible.

Who are the drivers behind this project?

It takes firestarters (Leen & Xavier)

It takes core contributors (Bastien, Itzel, Leen, Xavier, Bruno, Cedric, Tom, … )

It takes a village (countless contributors)

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