Medulla

A workspace for building resilience in practice

We are entering an era of tighter margins. Rising heat, political volatility, social fragmentation, rapid technological development, financial stress, and material dependence do not line up politely. They interfere. They are felt locally, but they do not begin or end there. They are expressions of a wider planetary condition that asks institutions, communities, and systems to adapt faster than they were designed to.

medulla connects work across governance, technology, culture, economy, and civic practice — building resilience under conditions of compounding crisis. It is a carefully held environment for people who want their workplace to be part of a wider field of attention, experimentation, and consequence.

Located in a Berlin courtyard on ground once marked by the division of East and West Berlin, medulla explores how resilience moves between bodies and scales: neighbourhood, city, planet. Deeply local in its setting and international in its relations, the space makes that polarity explicit rather than shying away from it.

medulla is initiated by Politics for Tomorrow / nextlearning e.V. and Dark Matter Labs. Together, we are building both a working environment and an active inquiry into how planetary pressures can be met through situated intelligence, coordination, and daily practice.

We welcome co-conspirators who will join us in this mission and strengthen the wider ecosystem we have built over the years.

Membership

We invite a small number of organisations and practitioners who want their work to be part of a larger shared environment.

You might work in:

public administration or municipal enterprises
technology, data and AI
governance, system change and cybernetics
urban planning, architecture, or infrastructure
impact finance, philanthropy, or mission-driven investment
culture, media and arts
alternative economic and financial models
civic organizing, community and activism
regenerative ecological practices and bioregional stewardship

What matters less than sector is seriousness: a willingness to work on real questions, in a place where different kinds of work can touch.

Contribution

Desk contributions start at 500 EUR per month, which places medulla above many standard coworking offers in Berlin. That is a deliberate choice as the contribution supports more than occupancy:

a shared environment with a clear curatorial direction
the time and care required to hold the space well
the possibility of working in close proximity to people from other fields
a setting designed for collaboration, not just parallel use
the early formation of a place intended to matter beyond itself

What is being offered here is not cheap access to square metres. It is participation in a working ecology.

If what you need is the lowest possible desk price, other coworking spaces offer many good options. If what you need is a place with intellectual seriousness, practical relevance, and a strong shared atmosphere, medulla may be a fit.

Shape the space

We think of members less as tenants and more as contributors to a shared environment.

That does not imply a heavy collective burden. It means recognising that a good space does not emerge by itself. It is made and remade by the people in it: through attention, exchange, rhythm, and occasional acts of initiative.

That might include:

sharing what you are working on from time to time
joining occasional conversations or internal sessions
contributing a perspective, network, or method
shaping how the space develops over time
taking part in small public or semi-public formats where relevant

Not everyone contributes in the same way. Nor should they. But we want the space to be shaped by the people inhabiting it, rather than flattened into a service to be consumed.

Space

medulla is spread across two levels.

The upper floor is oriented toward focused work: desks, quieter zones, and the ordinary discipline of getting things done.

The lower floor is more open and communal: a shared table, kitchen, workshop and gathering space, and room for small sessions, reviews, meals, and conversations.

There is also access to a courtyard and garden – a place to step outside the task at hand, reset attention, or care for the living world around us. We want the space to feel grounded, alive, and metabolically sane: a place where infrastructure, ideas, and relationships can actually meet.

Value

A desk at medulla gives you more than a place to sit.

You gain access to:

a carefully composed cross-sector environment
proximity to people working on adjacent systemic questions
opportunities for collaboration across governance, technology, finance, culture, and infrastructure
small shared formats that help ideas become more concrete
a setting where serious work and meaningful exchange can coexist
the chance to participate in something that may become a wider model over time

Some people come for focus. Some join for connection. Most need both.

Sneak Peak

On an ordinary day, medulla might hold several worlds at once:

someone working on heat preparedness for a district administration
a civic technologist mapping public interfaces and data flows
a foundation team shaping a new approach to funding urban resilience
a shared lunch in the intercultural kitchen, followed by time in the courtyard tending plants, sharing notes, or simply stepping out of the stream for a moment
a designer, strategist, or researcher refining a project with others around the table
a small evening session where members bring a live challenge and test a response together

Some days are quiet and concentrated. Others gather momentum through project reviews, workshops, shared inquiries, public conversations, or small experimental formats.

What matters is that the space supports simultaneously:

deep individual work
coordinated exchange
collaboration across fields