Since the beginning of the adventure, Alpiness has been shaped by people that believed in the project and contributed to it in many different ways. We’ve been inspired by places & people like Afri and Agus from Anceu coliving who showed us that rural coliving spaces can actually be used as rural transformation tools. This philosophy sticked with us from the start as we’ve never wanted to “just” open another coliving community. Of course we LOVE the coliving lifestyle but we’ve always seen it as an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to our village, have a positive local impact through different projects.
With that in mind, Alpiness has been a collaborative project from the start:
- We co-renovated our building: Since April 2023, we did 3 rounds of collaborative renovations and Alpiness wouldn’t be what it is without the 50+ people who came to help us with this immense task. From the kitchen, the floorings, testing different layouts to building a climbing wall, nothing would have been possible without all the people who helped us.
- We co-created a vegetable garden: With some volunteers like Louis, Lucie, Carmen, Giulia… we started a big vegetable garden next to the coliving that allows us to have to grow part of our food (everyone in the coliving can take vegetable for free). We also encourage our colivers to participate and help us with the gardening work. It’s also a great way to meet the local grandmas that love to share advice about how to grow this or that in the mountains 😉
- We started a public coworking & event space: Last year we also started the Trava space, a third space in the middle of our village that is used as public coworking space during the day but also for events during evenings or weekends. For example we have regular game nights at Trava (mixing local people with colivers), people can also rent the space (we had pilates, yoga classes, avalanche classes, some organisations assembly etc…) and we have many other ideas to develop.
- We revived our local cinema: There was a local cinema in our village that had been closed / underused for many years (another casualty of rural decline I guess). But now Fabienne is on the board to revive it (with other people from our village) and the cinema has now 3 screenings per week, with the latest movies for adults and kids alike. As Agus would say: “This isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about creating reasons for people to gather, to stay, to choose village life”
- and we have plenty of other ideas 😉
Because we’ve always tried to create the space for new people to get involved and contribute, we made incredible connexions / friendships along the way. Actually, the people that are now the most involved in Alpiness coliving have all participated / volunteered in some of these projects. For example Austris, that is now our business partner, first came here to help us with the renovations and never left the valley. Louis, Lucie & Carmen all came first as volunteers at the coliving, helping us in most of these projects, and are now moving (or strongly considering) to our village.
That’s why we want to keep the doors open for new projects, new people and that’s the idea behind the Alpiness spring lab.
Why spring? the financial reality of coliving spaces
You might be wondering why we host this in spring. The reason is simple: unlike winter and summer, when bookings are always full months in advance, spring and autumn are still quieter seasons. Running a rural coliving means constantly balancing finances. Alpiness is quite a successful coliving so far, but as most rural coliving spaces, it’s no million dollar business. For Alpiness to continue existing and growing, it needs to remain financially sustainable. That stability gives us the headspace and freedom to keep investing in creative rural projects.
That’s why these quieter periods feel like the right moment to open the space for meaningful projects and experiments.
So what’s the deal?
If you think you can contribute meaningfully to Alpiness coliving and our village, pitch us your project! Maybe you’re good at building stuff with your hands and you can help us improve our house or the Trava coworking space. Maybe you’re more of a creative / artsy person and can help us make our spaces feel more unique. Maybe you like gardening and you can help us more on this side. Or maybe you’re a communication guru and you can help us share what we do here to the right people (for now our online presence looks a bit like a sports camp… which is obviously only part of the reality). But in general, we are open to anything and we would love to hear how you could contribute to our bigger picture 🙂
In exchange, here is what we provide:
- Discounted or free accomodation at Alpiness (based on the project) for up to 3 projects between mid-March and mid-May
- The opportunity to be part of a community of like-minded people from all around the world
- Access to incredible alpine nature and outdoor activities (depending on when you come, you could be skiing, ski touring, trail, running, climbing, hiking… We will provide gear for free for most of these activities).
- and so much more…
So if you’re interested, just drop us a message at contact@alpiness-coliving.com. Tell us a bit more about you and how you can contribute to our mountain village utopia 😉 and we will get back to you asap. And here are a few pictures of life in our village to wet your appetite 😉
So what are you waiting for?
