<aside> đź“Ť Index is a mixed-use community space for creative programs, happenings & education.
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On May 25th, 2023, Index is opening a 4,000 square-foot shared studio and community space at 120 Walker Street in Chinatown, Manhattan.
A space for peer-led learning, co-working and collective knowledge sharing, Index will be unbranded and community run; a non-transactional solidarity economy working together to fractionalize ownership in our third space.
Our architectural design aims to honor its history by referencing NYC's downtown artist lofts of the 80's, using humble, considered materials and preserving elements of vernacular architecture.
<aside> đź“– Table of Contents
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→ Why build Index? What is it a reaction to?
Before the pandemic, your third space was the place you went when you weren’t at home, and weren’t at work. Maybe it was your library, community garden, or coffee shop.
Third spaces are where life actually happens
Post-pandemic, our offices have collapsed into our homes, our abode suddenly a loud, foreign mashup of spaces previously separate, and within that collision, a new sense of dread has entered our bodies.
Our minds now hold hulking masses of digital process and organizational maps no longer resembling the world around us, but instead an abstract cloud world that we ascend to for 8+ hrs a day, as our physical bodies take in ever more cortisol while sitting in our homes on back-to-back Zoom calls.
Our shelter has be stripped from us, taking basic human dignity with it. Index is about taking that back.
<aside> đź’Ź We are a non-transactional solidarity economy, working together to fractionalize ownership in our third space.
Index is a space for artists, designers, creatives, sommeliers, screenwriters, sex workers, therapists, philosophers, researchers, educators, volcanologists to collaborate, share knowledge, take refuge, and build collective power.
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There will be no logos on the walls (or mugs). Our financials will be open source, and we'll make money decisions as a group, in quarterly town halls.
We will not monetize resources when we don’t have to, and we will pass savings onto our members when we can.
You are not buying into Index, and we are not selling you anything.
→ What are you doing differently from other coworking spaces?
Financial Transparency
Index will share quarterly profit & loss statements with all members via our Town Hall events, so that as a group, we can make informed decisions on how we can improve the space, grow the network, and welcome more people.
Community Stakeholder Program
Everyone who’s paid a single dollar to Index (dating back to our founding) will be offered proportional voting share (& profit shares, should we decide to split revenues) in Index Space LLC via our Community Stakeholders program (launching formally ~Q4 '23), so that as we build value together, invested and aligned in working together to protect & improve this resource collectively.
Environmental Sustainability
Our architectural team (Nick Poe of 31) approach projects with a NYC preservationist bent, elevating the quirky imperfections of a space (rather than destroying & replacing them). As such, we've intervened with our space as little as possible to provide a beautiful space with as little material as possible.
Through our environmental research group Seaborne, we'll be carbon offsetting both our buildout, and ongoing costs in running the space, and working with local environmental groups like the LES Ecological Center to ensure we do as little damage as possible to our local environment.
Peer-led learning & research
As the Baumol effect continues to spike the cost of education in US, Index continues it's commitment to providing alternative education through curated peer-led learning & research groups, providing a platform for students to become teachers, and vice versa.
→ To your knowledge, are there other spaces outside the Index family that function this way?
Not quite — here's a list of a few spaces that have inspired our thinking, however →
Trust in Berlin is a great space for forward thinking internet philosophers and thinkers to gather. I believe they have some collective governance processes.