Now, on a personal note approaching the big 40 in 2020, a new era and decade and 20+ years in my professional career, I finally decide to dare. Afterall what bad can come out of it, apart from spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar or bored readers. I choose to take the risk.

2020, beyond my personal development, is a significant milestone, as all those who are in or are adjacent to my “bracket” have experienced the 70s and 80s, have managed to catch up with the 90s, survived the millennial change and have managed to jump on the new technology bandwagon as well. I believe those experiences give us a very special outlook on life, experiences of anxiety, freedom, spirituality as well as business and entrepreneurship. What a combination and all solid contributions to our wrinkles I guess.

For the first time in my career, I actually decided to launch my website, so here we are — welcome and thank you for stopping by!

This Blog, the official pain of commitment to writing, will be a place to share, learn and explore. Our plan is to update you on subjects that we find interesting, relevant and somehow related to the fields of Creative Industries, Real Estate and therefore the cities we live in. This space will also host ideas, research and people we may have met and learned from along the way.

Please feel free to share, comment, contribute and simply exchange, we are looking forward to start the dialogue,

Stay tuned!

While under pressure delivering the relevant economic profits to the investor and owner of the property, one thing was clear, we knew what mattered for us the most was not to compromise on developing relevant content and meaning, hence how the branding for the place was born. IMA means mother in Hebrew and symbolically represented a “foster home” for community, creativity and lifestyle. We had created a place to work, live, share, expose, play and just be.

Since then, I find concepts like the IMA Design Village have sprung up in many places and cities around the world. Mixed-use developments are a substantial part of any major city, as these provide for all necessary demands and experiences locals and visitors may have, bringing people together, giving room to collaborate, be part of a community and beyond.

Ten years on and various cities later I find myself in Lisbon Portugal, a place with history and an emerging city with rapid growth, crafting art scene, blooming real estate industry and overall high expectations. Many want to discover, invest and enjoy a piece of the furthest western European point with perfect light, highest waves and great climate. Suddenly this sleeping beauty of Lisbon has been awakened and with a big bang started competing with the big cities such as Berlin and London alike.   

While comparing both cities at the respective time of growth, Berlin and Lisbon that is, we observe one notable difference makes the gap: We have changed and so have our expectations. Of course it is normal one may say, after all we learn and evolve constantly. While this may be true, my observation confronts a bit of a paradox and one I would like to study further.

When observing modern cities or those becoming, I discover that co-working, co-living, co-housing, co-producing, co-investing, co-developing and simply co-being are the main differentiators today. Community growth and communal participation is a must, collective consciousness is a thing and collective efforts are in demand to create better living. The paradox is that living in communities and communities as such, is actually a very ancient way of being. However, it seems that growing-up in times of “Co” requires us to re-define and re-discover what our responsibilities are, besides growing influences, consequences and opportunities.

Personally I crave to understand what our future is shaping to become, questioning who we are today, what our demands are and therefore how we will affect who we will eventually grow up to be. While observing the above-mentioned “Co-fluences” I can only but wonder if The Future of – I – (me, myself and I that is), is literally shaping to become Co-being, and if so what does this actually mean?

Since having started to study this subject, I have come to understand that we are in search of successful living, which has also become the lead motto for my personal development project Casa Os. Successful Living means many things of course, at the very least however, it is the desire to define the thin line between being successful in business, work or status and personal growth.

To explore this subject further I have set up a platform called The future of I. The platform aims to examine, question and challenge the subject of “I and Co-being”. Under this umbrella I am looking at the meaning of Living and Homes, Work and Entrepreneurship, Cities and City development, besides responsibilities, well-being and the Being itself.

You may find this whole subject redundant, and maybe the simple answer is that we are all simply looking for the meaning of life. However, I truly believe that there is a great shift within our society and I am curious where my research will take me. I look forward to reaching out and speaking to wonderful and curious people out there who have become specialists in their respective fields and may be interested in helping me connect the right dots. If you have an opinion about this subject or simply feel like contributing to my research project, please drop me an email: info@marinaos.com register at www.thefutureofi.com

Continuing on the same path, and in light of our celebration of 20+ years of work experience and leading up to the personal big celebration of 20+20, I would like to share with you a very unique read, published by The Guardian newspaper on the 25.09.2004 titled “Ourselves in year 2020”. Almost exact to the day, 15 years on and still in immaculate condition, this publication addresses very interesting subjects, quoted text: “How we will care for our young and old…What our work will mean to us… Where we will be living… And will the state be spying on us?” In the upcoming few posts I will be sharing with you various articles from this publication in hope to hear your opinions on the subject matter and as a contribution to my Future of I research project. Enjoy the read and please share your thoughts, opinions and suggestions with me: info@marinaos.com

First article is titled FAMILY FORTUNES by Madeleine Bunting for The Guardian newspaper, 25th September 2004