The Glass Box is a lie. Here's what actually works.

Last week, we talked about Michael Korn and the “insurgents” at Blue Garage who didn’t wait for permission to start building. We talked about how sometimes, you have to build the future before anyone else is ready to buy it.

Well, the future is here. And it’s time to move in.

Because for the last decade, we have been sold a different story—a lie.

The “Future of Work” has been marketed to us as a product, some people even trademark the phrase. A sleek, frictionless, high-spec Glass Box.

The story went like this: If you just buy the right furniture, install the right app, and offer enough craft beer, you will “scale.” You will become a unicorn. You will exit.

This is the Consumer Story. It treats people as users. It treats space as a commodity. And it treats community as a feature you can toggle on and off like a subscription.

Naomi Klein would tell us to follow the money. Where does the money go when a freelancer rents a desk in a Glass Box?

It leaves the neighbourhood before the transaction even clears. It goes to a bondholder in New York. It goes to a landlord in an offshore tax haven. Extractive Economics.

The Glass Box extracts value. The air is recycled. The connections are transactional.

And looking at the data from across our network, I think you are tired of it.

What alive actually feels like

I don’t live in London anymore. But whenever I go back and sit with Kofi Oppong at Urban MBA, I’m reminded of what alive actually feels like.

It’s chaotic in the way a kitchen is chaotic during dinner service—noisy, urgent, vital.

Kofi sits with a 17-year-old kid who is disillusioned with school, and a 57-year-old creative who just got made redundant.

He’s teaching them both how to use AI to write a letter to the Council, or to the bank. He’s hacking the bureaucracy that was designed to exclude them. He’s showing them that they have agency.

In that room, “coworking” means a life raft.

It reminds me of Williamz Omope, who runs his Job Clubs in libraries and spaces like Space4.

Williamz doesn’t have an eligibility form. He doesn’t ask to see your passport or your credit score.

He just says, “This is a safe space. Come back as much as you want.”

He measures success by confidence regained, not job placements. He’s building an app based on “Expected Goals” (xG) in football, because he knows that sometimes, just taking the shot is the victory.

This is Civic Infrastructure.

The economics of belonging

When we stop trying to be a “Workspace Operator” and start acting like a “Civic Infrastructure Builder,” the economics change.

Look at Karen Tait at The Residency in Bishop’s Stortford.

When you spend a pound there, it doesn’t vanish. It goes to the local gym next door. It goes to the local caterer. It goes to the independent supplier.

As Karen told me, she’s building a “level playing field”—a place where the money stays to fight another day.

Look at Tom Ball in Bristol.

He’s running a “Pay It Forward” scheme where he gives free hot-desking to people “in the Gap” between jobs.

Why? Because he knows that a connected, supported person is the lifeblood of the city. He knows that if you lose that person to isolation, the whole city gets poorer.

This is Circulation Economics. This is the Industrial Commons.

It’s what Marshall talked about in the 19th century—the “something in the air” that makes a district thrive. It’s not the buildings. It is pure Social Capital.

It’s the trust. It’s the reciprocity. It’s the knowledge that if my boiler breaks at midnight, I can text someone who actually cares.

The insurgents are tired of waiting

For ten years, I’ve been running the London Coworking Assembly. We’ve been the “insurgents” on the fringe, talking about social value and civic infrastructure while the big guys burned billions on “growth at all costs.”

Well, the big guys are still here. In fact, they are getting bigger.

Through mergers, acquisitions, and sheer spending power, the corporate chains are consolidating.

They have the budgets to outspend us. They have the lobbyists to get the government’s ear while we fight for scraps.

But we’re realising something: We can’t fight them alone anymore.

The freelance designer in Ewan Buck’s space in Bromley—who spent four years fighting for the Council to recognise that a coworking space is actually a town square—needs the energy of the Urban MBA student in Hackney.

The tech founder needs the artist. The policymaker needs the maker space.

The next step isn’t “growing the assembly.” The next step is convergence.

It’s what happens when the Coworking Operators (Karen, Tom, Ewan) stop just talking to each other and start building with the Neighbourhood Activists (Williamz, Kofi) and the Local Makers (Michael Korn at Blue Garage).

We stop being separate “sectors.” We become a united front.

Testing the hypothesis at Blue Garage

On February 24th, we’re taking 150 of us—operators, students, makers, policy geeks—and locking ourselves in Blue Garage in Lewisham for a day.

You know the usual events. Panels of consultants who’ve never unclogged a toilet. Keynotes about “the future of work” delivered by people who’ve never had a member crying in the kitchen at lunch.

We’re running it BarCamp style. Open source. The people in the room build the agenda.

And we are walking the walk.

The event is being staffed and run by Urban MBA. Blaze and the current cohort will be running the entire day—staffing, logistics, all of it. It’s part of their curriculum. They’re the next generation of community builders.

The food? It’s coming from Simone, a thriving food entrepreneur in the Urban MBA programme. Real food. Local food. The food tastes like love, not plastic.

We’re not just saying we should build community infrastructure—we’re doing it in how we run the day.

And this isn’t a one-off.

We’re building a movable community that shows up, quarter after quarter, in different neighbourhoods. We are going to prove that “small and connected” beats “big and extracted” every single time.

Tickets are already moving. I’d love to see you there.

If you’ve been reading these notes and wondering, “Okay Bernie, I get the theory, but what do we DO?”... this is it.

We stop waiting for the cavalry. We build the infrastructure ourselves.

Deep Dive from the Archives

If this struck a chord, here is where we’ve explored these ideas before:

• Build It Before They’re Buying – The story of Michael Korn, David Bowie, and why places like Blue Garage matter.
• The Antidote to Alienation Is Participation – Why we need to stop consuming community and start building it.

Bernie’s Picks

🎬 Watch: ACTionism @ Dragon. This is what it looks like when the neighbourhood actually owns the space. 2 minutes of pure energy.

🎧 Listen: The Williamz Omope Episode on the Coworking Values Podcast. When he talks about “journey-based success” vs “job outcomes,” it changes how you see your own career.

📺 Watch: ‘Your Workspace Is Under Attack’ — The full breakdown of what the VOA is doing and why.

📋 Action: Email your MP Toolkit from FlexSA. Everything you need to contact your MP, including template letters (free, direct-download).

The Monday Domino

Stop trying to fix the whole system today. Just look at your supply chain.

Pick one thing you buy for your space this week—coffee, printing, soap. Can you buy it from someone in your postcode? Can you buy it from a human?

Shift that one transaction. That’s how we start.

Thank you for your time and attention today

Bernie 💚🍉

p.s. 🅿️ Get your ticket for 24th February