The first Startup Studio dedicated to Emerging Real Estate: SPX Studio

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min read

Real estate has been lagging behind other industries for a long time, but a much awaited wave of transformation has started to reshape the market. Emerging sectors, such as coliving, must embrace innovation in order to thrive, and that means going beyond just adopting cutting-edge technology. The most impactful way towards success for alternative real estate sectors is through cooperation. Spatial Experience has created the place to foster partnerships that have already begun to transform the market.


The following article was included in the recently published third Edition of Coliving Insights, which main purpose could be summarised in six words: driving impact in the coliving sector. In order to understand the path that led to the creation of the publication, we need to go back a little further. Long before Coliving Insights came to life, we at Spatial Experience were already on the quest to enable meaningful transformation in emerging real estate sectors. Through a partnership with Conscious Coliving and Art of Co, Spatial Experience co-created Coliving Insights. The success of this joint venture and its impact on the industry set a bolder idea in motion: an aspiration to cooperate with knowledgeable partners in alternative real estate and thus affect change on a broader scale. That idea was brought to life by Spatial Experience in the form of SPX Studio, the first startup studio in the world focused on building real estate joint ventures within emerging asset classes. 


We at Spatial Experience believe that coliving, as an emerging real estate class, needs a community of businesses and thought-leaders that can achieve one common goal through cooperation: driving the industry forward in an impactful and sustainable way. Learn more below on how SPX Studio is helping to shape the future of living through venture building.


Spatial Experience’s road to create SPX Studio


At Spatial Experience we understand the need for innovation in the real estate industry and we are pushing forward to help fill in the gap. As an innovative hub, our focus is on shaping future living in emerging real estate by designing purposeful spatial experiences. Spatial Experience’s CEO and Founder, Bart Sasim, believes experience-driven spaces encourage authentic human-to-human interactions that enhance individual quality of living and contribute to strengthening communities. At Spatial Experience, we aim to promote connection, inclusion and a feeling of belonging throughout our work.


Nearly a decade of experience and involvement in diverse projects across Europe allowed Spatial Experience to provide its clients with innovation as a service, blending state-of-the-art design, memorable branding, strategic thinking and a growth-driven methodology. Spatial Experience’s role is to bring experience-driven design to build ecosystems around communities and buildings in urban spaces that will ensure the wellbeing of the next generations, while fostering long lasting business development opportunities. We believe the impact of collective actions will determine the successful development of cities and we take in serious consideration our responsibility towards future societies and the environment when designing outstanding spatial experiences.


Why does SPX Studio focus on Partnerships?

The power of Joint Ventures


Stakeholders at Spatial Experience are not looking to pave the future by themselves; our community acknowledges the high value in building partnerships and sharing resources. To overcome the digital innovation gap of the real estate industry through powerful collaborations, we have launched SPX Studio. The newest enterprise in our ecosystem originates from a combination of the extensive knowledge base of our SPX Lab and the professional expertise of Spatial Experience. SPX Studio will operate as a startup studio (also known as a venture builder) that connects the digital and the real world by delivering smart solutions for emerging real estate and future urban environments. SPX Studio will ideate, develop, prototype and launch ventures created out of industry needs, ensuring the creation of cost efficient and scalable solutions. One of its main purposes is democratising the access to modern on-demand resources required to craft experience-driven solutions. 


Our venture builder aims at solving challenges of emerging real estate sectors, while also setting future trends. SPX Studio recognises that joint ventures have the power to generate strong, purposeful enterprises. The basis for that is in the combination of multifunctional, complementary resources. Joining forces, parties are enabled to deliver high level business performance, learn with each other and evolve together. Aware of the power of joint ventures, SPX Studio's objective is to establish long-lasting partnerships. We are helping promising entrepreneurs and start-ups to achieve their potential, while also growing with them. SPX Studio benefits from Spatial Experience’s long-term relationship with players and decision makers in the real estate sector. By collaborating with such partners, SPX Studio empowers sustainable transformations within cities and communities, while enabling innovation in the traditional real estate market.  


In order to innovate and push tech transformation in real estate, SPX Studio brings together specialists in multiple fields to co-create experience-driven products and services through business development, design and technology. Design Thinking is SPX Studio’s leading methodology, which enables business to build, test, and grow ideas. Technology supports growth and helps scale the solution to create a greater impact. For SPX Studio, future-proof concepts  are often bound by tech innovation, optimisation and automatisation.


SPX Studio jointly launches Coliving Ventures to guide Coliving into the future


To begin fulfilling its role in the real estate revolution, SPX Studio will kick-start its activities with the collaborative launch of Coliving Ventures. The joint venture is the result of a collaboration between four industry thought leaders operating as founding partners, Aitana de Jong, Bart Sasim, Gui Perdrix and Matt Lesniak, with their respective businesses: Spatial Experience, Art of Co, Conscious Coliving. The co-founders believe the coliving sector is heading towards becoming an established asset class and they have already started contributing to consolidating the industry. They have brought Coliving Ventures to life in order to drive meaningful change in real estate. Coliving Ventures encourages innovative, sustainable business development and impactful growth in the coliving sector by building up different pillars within the industry. One of these pillars is represented by the well known Coliving Insights.


Coliving Insights drives impact in the sector through education, research and a diversity of resources, while showcasing innovative solutions and actors. Its mission is to push the coliving industry to be more inclusive, knowledgeable and innovative. Coliving Insight’s approach is simple and effective: identify  thought leaders, promote viable business concepts, catalyse their potential and boost the desired impact. 


After Coliving Insights, the next enterprise launched by Coliving Ventures is Coliving Awards. Although the coliving sector is still considered an emerging industry, it has shown strong and stable growth in the last three years, with future projections pointing to an increase in investment to be inserted into this alternative asset class in the coming years. In spite of its growing relevance, coliving is still not an institutionalised segment within the broader real estate industry; with that in mind Coliving Ventures developed its next enterprise: Coliving Awards. The endeavour will be the first award show dedicated to highlighting key innovators, actors and ideas that are shaping the coliving industry. Coliving Awards aims at establishing a quality standard in the sector, to become a reference to numerous entrepreneurs and professionals trying to bring innovation to coliving, while also granting recognition by rewarding outstanding talent and organisations in the field. The ceremony will be held once a year, giving the spotlight and a much needed exposure to the leaders of tomorrow. The very first edition will take place in April 2021 and applications to participants will open by the end of this year.


Two more pillars of Coliving Ventures are under development, to be revealed in mid 2021. Following the premises from its “family”, Coliving Insights and Coliving Awards, the new ventures promise to foster impactful growth and sustainable business development in the coliving sector.


A sneak peek into what is coming... Digital Estate 


SPX Studio's next venture will be launching by Q1 2021 and it will focus on digital transformation in real estate. Digital Estate will be an enterprise dedicated to helping businesses carry out a sustainable digital transformation and reach their highest potential. Keep yourself informed about the latest updates about SPX Studio, Coliving Ventures and Digital Estate by subscribing to our newsletter!

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