transforma bxl 2.0 – We have a new home!

A couple of months after we celebrated transforma bxl’s first anniversary at the former Solvay Sport, we received sudden news from Aspria – the new owner – that they would not renew our lease. This was an unexpected decision for us because we had agreed with the company managing the property on a new lease that would allow us to stay until the fall of 2016 (at least). Since this agreement reflected their negotiation with the property owner, we thought everything was in order… But it wasn’t, and we had to leave.

The former Solvay Sport was perfect for us to prototype our project using the lean startup way (Build, Measure, Learn), strengthen our concept and community and then move on (you can find more on why and how we took this crazy bet in this previous post). And of course, we knew that we couldn’t stay there forever and that this day would eventually come.

We had spent a lot of our time looking for the next location, and we finally found it hidden in the previous offices of Sanofi Pasteur MSD, located in Evere, 13 Avenue Jules Bordet. Anecdotically, we have signed the lease for this new home the same day we received the confirmation that our first location had to be emptied asap.

Initially, we were planning on keeping both locations; we wanted to take some time to work on the new site, transform it and open it to our members in September 2015. But Aspria’s decision was final and we had no choice.. but to be reactive!

After moving out and in – in a record three days – we are now open for business in this very nice sustainable building, recently renovated, with green roofs and photovoltaics. We also have a huge garden, a nice cafeteria, a terrace, and lots of space. Most importantly, our new home allows us to have an open space for coworkers and another floor with closed offices for startups, in addition to an open meeting space.

Originally, the building was thought as a classic premium business space, but as you can suspect, we won’t leave it as we found it, and we will deconstruct the space at will :). We will take advantage of July-August to transform the space one bit at a time, while keeping it open for our members. Disturbance will be kept at a minimum.

We are already in touch with designers, artists and creatives interested in co-designing and co-creating an innovative and pleasant workplace corresponding to our philosophy. If you are interested to join the fun, make yourself known!

We will also host co-building DIY workshops, to create vegetable plots (potagers en carré), an Insect Hotel and other fun stuff for indoor and outdoor use. The prototyping phase is now over, and we have entered into the next one: scaling up. We have very interesting programs in the pipeline, involving coworking of course, but also startup acceleration, intrapreneurship programs, innovation discovery days etc.

Let the fun begin.. Join us and be a part of it !

transforma bxl team