Turning into Calle Heliotrope from Calle Castellar is rather like disappearing down a rabbit hole, which for two reasons: you are. Firstly, walking through a huge, graffitied wooden door, you enter the labyrinth that was the Old Hat Factory, a huge expanse of a place which, although a protected building is also an architectural work in progress. And secondly, like Alice in Wonderland, who runs after the White Rabbit in search of knowledge, you walk through these doors into a space which can only fuel your curiosity.
Standing empty, bar the odd squatter, since 1995 when the last felt hat left the premises, the doors to this co-working space opened in spring 2019.
Having originally been in Triana in Calle Tejares, 11, the jump was made across the Guadalquivir and the name came too: T11 – espacio creativo. The building, which houses the Sinsombreros association, is owned by the same family that own Los Corralones nearby in Castellar, Pelícano and Pasaje Majol, and is naturally more than merely a coworking space.
It is more a lovingly envisaged expanse created, amongst others, by Antonio, one of the 6 ‘socios’ and an architect. Maintaining many of its original features, it combines the (trabajo limpio and sucio) regular co-working inhabitants who design, translate, author, edit, and animate, with hands-on carpenters and teachers like Nicholas ‘furniture to die for: meet your maker’ Chandler (MUCH more on him at a later date!) in the vast workshop next door.
Here you can have use of tools and machinery as well as the added value of the synergy provided from the talent that comes through the doors; there is a yoga/dance studio and a tattoo artist plus there have been mercadillos, exhibitions and concerts (pre-covid of course). Support for this space is such that during lockdown the members who were already working there kept paying their subscriptions; actions speak louder than words.
The café @fabricafe is run by coffee expert, baker, jam-maker extraordinaire and passionate cyclist Alistair Gow, who is there during the week from 11-12 and often on a Saturday. But the piece de la resistance is that you can walk in off the street for a coffee and a cake – you don’t need to be a fully paid-up co-worker.
It’s a space with warmth, creativity, harmony and love, so if you are looking for an inspiring working environment, look no further and you too could ‘believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast’.
Calle Heliotropo, 4 Acc
Planta 1
41003 Sevilla
(La Antigua Fabrica de Sombreros)
[email protected] / 654 79 74 68 Jose / 619 23 31 88 Saul / 617 10 89 93 Antonio
@t11.es / FB T11 – Espacio Creativo
- Tap and Swing in Seville - 14th May 2021
- Renny Jackson - Music man - 29th April 2021
- Nicholas Chandler – furniture designer and maker - 17th March 2021
