ISN'T IT A SECOND LIFE???

In recent years, many young creative entrepreneurs have been forced to leave Portugal in order to find work. Yet because of this, a Portuguese young lady, owner of a music management agency, was able to bring a London success formula to Lisbon.

Located on a site of the Lisbon tramway station and close to the river, Village Underground - so is the project name - provides affordable studios for young artists in recycled shipping containers and disused buses.

The latter were supplied by Lisbon's public transportation company, Carris, which saw in the project an opportunity to revitalize its station.

For 150 euros a month, up to 60 creatives can co-habit in the fourteen units, two of which are permanently reserved for workshops and a third for short-term stays by visiting foreign artists or entrepreneurs, like a Dutch woman who was kind enough to give answer to a few questions from me, while she accepted to pose for my camera.

Her office was in a container. She liked living and working in Portugal because, as she emphasised, there was sunshine and people smiled...  Her business activity, renting tuk-tuks, was going very well, she added. She told me she never had the feeling of being in a container but in a normal office room. Through the window, she enjoyed the view of the bridge, while seagulls sometimes seemed to be watching her...

I saw a man remodelling what it seemed to be a desk, most probably to be used in an office to open soon.

~~ Thanks for stopping by ~~