aquí is a social innovation collective based in Barcelona, Spain. Roger Guilemany (research lead), Lea Karrasch (design lead), and Clement Rames (impact lead) co-founded aquí alongside Mireia Lozano-Carbassé (head of advocacy).
The aquí team on… Shaping Tomorrow: aquí, Convivencia and the Art of Community Building
Urban Voices #36, October 2023
Can you take us back to the beginning and share how aquí started, and when you first crossed paths with the EIT Community?
For our first project, we collaborated with neighbours of all ages and backgrounds to co-design and build urban furniture that encouraged social interaction. It was a very grassroots operation from the get-go: we mostly used reclaimed materials and teamed up with other activist collectives to recruit participants. Witnessing neighbours come together, using the finished product in a public space, and seeing it become an integral part of people’s daily lives, was incredibly fulfilling for us.
Our story with the EIT Community began later, after we responded to a citizen engagement call linked to their New European Bauhaus initiative. At that time, we were all fairly recent graduates deeply immersed in grassroots activism, advocating for cleaner air and a healthier environment within the city.
Our initial encounter with the EIT Community marked a turning point for us, giving us more weight when reaching out to other organisations and individuals. And personally, it confirmed to us that our ideas weren’t crazy, helping us believe that these projects could be implemented at a meaningful scale.
You see yourselves as collaborators of the communities with whom you work – can you talk a little bit more about that?
Our approach at aquí is deeply rooted in collaboration. One of our guiding principles is solidarity, not charity. We don’t want to be seen as external entities coming in to ‘rescue’ these neighbourhoods. Instead, we work hard to become integral parts of
those communities. Whenever we start a project in a new neighbourhood, we spend months getting to know the place, the people who live there, the collectives that are already active there, to better understand the lived experience of the place. So we actively engage with the people we serve.
For us it’s about co-creating solutions and working together to improve the living conditions of everyone involved. We firmly believe in the concept of convivencia, which emphasises living in conviviality with and caring for the people we share space with.
While the impact we strive for might seem modest in the grand scheme of things, it’s about fostering these connections. We want people to realise that, collectively, they have the agency to change their circumstances and contribute to improving their local environment.
Through our work, we’ve seen this transformation take shape in various ways. For instance, by planting seeds of intersectionality and gender inclusion, we’ve witnessed other collectives starting to consider these issues in their own activities.
So it’s not just about immediate outcomes; it’s about sparking long-term change and creating a more inclusive and empowered community. We firmly believe that this collaborative approach is the key to sustainable and meaningful transformation within urban spaces.
Aquí recently made a significant shift from a nonprofit model to a worker co-op. Could you delve into how this transition aligns with your values and what key benefits you anticipate as a result?
The transition to a worker cooperative is a natural progression for us and aligns seamlessly with our values. It empowers us to have greater agency in defining our operational methods, selecting projects that deeply resonate with our mission, and ensuring that everyone within our organisation receives fair compensation.
While the nonprofit model served us well in our early stages, it has its limitations. This transition allows us to create a more equitable and empowering environment for all our team members. The horizontality and consensus decision making that we practise within the organisation ultimately reflects how we engage with communities.
For us it's about co-creating solutions and working together to improve the living conditions of everyone involved. We firmly believe in the concept of convivencia, which emphasises living in conviviality with and caring for the people we share space with.
Navigating the delicate balance between preserving your organisation’s values and securing funding from diverse sources can be a complex task. Could you share your insights on how you’ve successfully managed this tension between your principles and the requirements of funding bodies?
Managing this balance is a challenge, and we’ve learned valuable lessons along the way. It’s true that certain funding opportunities may come with a strong business or profit-orientation motivation, or employ language that contrasts with our grassroots approach. However, we’ve learned to align our projects with these frameworks without compromising on our core values.
Finding the right balance between maintaining independence and seeking institutional support is a challenge faced by every organisation. Some entities choose to remain fully self-sufficient. While this approach is admirable, scaling impact and creating lasting change often require some combination of public, private and community funding sources.
The long-term financial viability of bottom-up projects is key to sustaining their impact. It’s about finding the champions that believe in your vision and will support you to make it real. Ultimately, our unwavering focus remains on securing resources to support our grassroots work and contribute meaningfully to positive change within the communities we serve