A playbook for community-based workspaces.

A decade ago, we sought to build a space where we could facilitate these serendipitous meetings on a daily basis, face to face. Media Evolution City, a coworking space based in a historic industrial area, opened its doors in 2012 and currently houses around 500 people across two locations. It is a physical manifestation of our beliefs and knowledge, an ever-evolving mechanism continually affirming and debunking our assumptions of how people create and work.

We think it is time to put to paper some of the learnings we have amassed along the way. Our perspective and projects. How we build for the future. And, of course, how people are at the centre of what we do.

Work is a four-letter word book is written with the ambition to inspire and give tools to aspiring spacemakers and features three parts:

Work, what is it anyway?
We believe that life and work—the individual and the professional identity, the workplace and the colleagues, the digital office and the physical meeting place—is a whole package that should be reimagined from the ground up.

Mindsets for workspace design
As custodians of a coworking space for big and small businesses, we’ve come to learn that one is more than a mere property manager. The book features 13 principles that we have come to learn are crucial for creating and maintaining a considerate space for work.

Tools
Building on the mindsets this part of the book digs deeper and makes our philosophies more tangible. With the use of the ten tools provided you can roll up your sleeves and get started transforming your space right away.

“Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.”

– Albert Camus

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Details / Facts:
Work is a four-letter word – A playbook for community-based
60 pages
Words: Alisa Larsen in conversation with Magnus Thure Nilsson and Martin Thörnkvist
Illustrations: Jon Koko
Art direction: HolsterGreen Studio
Layout: Linnea Paulsson Neppelberg
ISBN: 978-91-987389-0-2