mishmash workspaces: Selina Navis

Selina is a Portuguese history inspired workspace, becoming a very distinctive place in the city. What’s behind the creation of this space? 

Selina Navis was built for a growing market of digital nomads, they’re the core of the company, but we also noticed earlier on there was a never-ending search for office spaces in our city. Selina Navis’s name comes from the Discoveries ships, and if you noticed upstairs we kept all the neo-Arab ceilings and recovered all the floorings that are very similar to the ship’s hull. Our rooms have names of ancient discoverers and everything comes together in this Discoveries theme. With the birth of Selina Navis, our main goal is to be a recognised brand within the city. We already have Selina Porto which is a completely different concept in the hotel space, we are disruptors in that sense, and on the co-work side of things, we also want to stand out. Co-works are either too informal or too formal or sometimes too focused on certain areas like textile or architecture. We are a co-work that differentiates itself because we can incubate all types of people from advocacy to design.

Coworking spaces are known for the diversity of people they gather in one single space. What do you think is the greatest advantage of that? 

I think there are two ways of woking. A more traditional one, one that we already know with the common eight hours of work per day, where there’s a very limited space to innovate and discover new things, that’s so traditional as monotonous. What we promise here at Selina Navis is to create a space where networking is made possible by a plurality of areas and sectors that are inserted in our co-work. Networking is undoubtedly one of the best ways to do market prospecting and business partnerships. We have this commitment with our co-workers to provide it to everyone involved. We have a community that’s interested in what we’ve installed for them, and with the recent Selina Café, we’re trying to build a community every day.

How can a daily exchange of ideas between teams contribute to the quality of the work produced inside these doors?

I think this is a very personal answer, but as I’ve been in my home office in the last couple of months, at home I felt like a one-man-show. Being here at Selina, that’s the opposite of what you feel. The quality of work and the constant sharing and learning is one of the best advantages of communities like this.

What are the biggest advantages of choosing a coworking space instead of a traditional office?

Networking, productivity and a turn-key business! Here you can focus on the core of what you do best. In a traditional office, you have to be focused on not missing deadlines like paying rent, electricity, or cleaning. There are so many conditions around having a business that sometimes can undermine people’s productivity. At Selina, you can hire a virtual office space, a VPN, a server, but at all times Selina is responsible for the maintenance and supervision of all those matters. The only thing we want people to do here is to focus on what they do best.

In today’s age, companies are looking at workplaces as enhancers of their collaborators work. How do you define Selina Navis’ work environment?

Selina’s environment is a collaborative model, above all. Selina’s mission is to inspire authentic, meaningful connections. We inspire people’s connection, that’s the core of how we work here. At our Future Room we have yoga classes, internal co-work events, workshops, talks, roundtables and on Fridays we usually fo after work parties!

How do you think a coworking space can promote a creative environment?

It depends on the spaces and co-workers, but I would say that a good community manager is always going to try and absorb the creativity of his or her co-workers. Workshops work really well in a community because there is a lot of sharing and creativity. We already several workshops including a  textile stitching workshop in a 70% digital co-working space. There is a lot of curiosity and internal promotion is key to promote things within our community.

We are already entering in an Era where remote working is a reality. How can this influence the workspaces of the future?

Flexibility is a very positive thing. In my opinion Portugal still doesn’t have a very clear notion on remote working. Remote work isn’t working from home, it’s having an head office in a certain place and having the possibility of coming into the office or not. You can have your business address wherever you want, including here at Rua José Falcão for 75 euros. It doesn’t mean that you must have your offices here. We have a lot of companies that only want to buy a virtual office space in order to pick up their correspondence and we rarely see them. 

In your opinion, which feature do you think stands out the most in your space?

I would have to say that we don’t necessarily have a feature to highlight for any particular reason, I think we stand out as a whole. Selina Navis concept can’t be easily replicated, it’s very Selina. Opposite to other co-working spaces, spaces that are focused on making money, here you can see caricatures made by a local on the wall, art all over the spaces, vaulted ceilings and wood flooring with more than one hundred years old. We are Selina. Selina is diversity and inclusion.