May 26, 2023 17 min read Digital 52: Global Coworking Stories

Digital 52 3️⃣5️⃣ - On Moving from a big city to a remote village, Growing your community along the way, and educating the future generations to the craft and art of making: the story of Maker’s Asylum.

Today’s story will take you to a small village in Goa, India. What’s there? A Makerspace that has made moving a part of its growth and educational strategy!

Today’s story will take you to a small village in Goa, India. What’s there? A Makerspace that has made moving a part of its growth and educational strategy!

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Their Tags in the book
Community Growth - Education - Makerspaces

You can read the story of Maker’s Asylum on page 154 of “Around The World in 250 Coworking Spaces”.

Makerspaces have always captivated us. Throughout our travels exploring coworking spaces worldwide, we have witnessed the profound impact that makerspaces have on their cities and their members. Within these creative havens, we have encountered inspiring stories of transformation. Lawyers turned skilled craftsmen, startups shaping the future of mobility, and artists utilizing makerspaces to bring their grand artistic visions to life. Our first encounter with Maker's Asylum, the space we are thrilled to introduce to you today, took place in Mumbai. We were so moved by the experience that we even documented it in a blog post, which you can find here. If there is one aspect on which Maker's Asylum has wholeheartedly focused its journey, it is unquestionably education. As you are about to discover, education encompasses various dimensions within the realm of Maker's Asylum, extending far beyond simply teaching people how to use machinery. Their educational odyssey has led the entire team through a series of remarkable adventures, beginning in Mumbai and Delhi, and ultimately culminating in a remote village near the sea. How did it all unfold? Keep reading to find out.

➡️ A little refresher

Who’s behind the featured space?

Meet Vaibhav Chhabra, the original founder of Maker’s Asylum.

Vaibhav was studying in Boston, while also working for a startup. There, he encountered a big community of makers called Artists and Asylum. When he moved back to India he could not find a space where makers create and do things themselves. Facing many challenges with the product he was working on back in India, testing in rural areas, and having to give it to service providers so they can redesign the hardware part of it, he was missing the community in Boston and decided to create his own makerpace space and give it a name inspired by it.

3 years after founding Maker’s Asylum, Vaibhav was joined by his partner in life and in business Richa Shrivastava. They’ve been growing the business and their team ever since.