Spacified

= an online (and offline) matchmaking service for (empty) spaces and spaces that are available for temporary rent. Headquartered in Belgium, the network is currently expanding to cities in the Netherlands, France, and even outside of Europe. [1]

URL = http://www.spacified.com/

Interview

Of Patrice Fleurquin founder of Spacified, by Joop de Boer:

"How would you describe Spacified?

“Some say that we are the Airbnb for commercial spaces, but a dating website for temporary urban spaces would probably be a better description. We are an online platform that connects small and big entrepeneurs with empty spaces. Spacified is not only about empty office spaces, but also about retail and event spaces. We’ve chosen to not focus on a niche market, but look at urban spaces in a broader sense.”

How did the idea to start Spacified come about?

“There’s a huge demand for spaces among people with ideas — young entrepreneurs that want to test-run their business idea, webstores that want to find out if their concept also works in real life, and start-ups that want to display their product in a serious environment. On the Internet, this test environment is easily accessible, but in the physical world it’s more difficult. Our main concern is to make space use accessible to entrepreneurs and initiators that want to try out stuff. ‘Anything is space’ is our philosophy, which means that we don’t want to focus on only retail, or only workspaces. We believe that our perception of space is still very narrow. Office spaces, for instance, are meant to be office spaces, but can be used for a lot more things than work alone. This cross-over between space and new activity is really what we want to achieve.” (http://popupcity.net/spacified-a-dating-website-for-pop-up-spaces/)