We’re Outlandish a tech worker-cooperative committed to creating social and economic change.

SPACE4 is part of Outlandish, a worker-cooperative that develops technology for progressive social causes. We build websites, data dashboards, and digital campaigns for the likes of Greenpeace, the National Education Union, the BBC and more.

As a cooperative we embed cooperative values into everything we do – meaning that our work is guided by a sense of social justice, equal collaboration, and economic redistribution.

In 2016 we co-founded a UK-wide network of cooperative tech businesses called Co-Tech to use our collective experience, skills, resources and knowledge to radically increase the market share of companies that are owned and run by their workers.

We quickly realised, that there were no physical spaces for cooperatives or people interested in progressive tech to gather and collaborate. That’s when Polly joined Outlandish to set up SPACE4.

Through SPACE4, we activate our local community, small business, and social movements through affordable space, training, and networking events.

In 2017 when we first opened SPACE4 we were focused on the tech-for-good sector, tech cooperatives in particular. However since opening, our community has grown from strength to strength hosting a wide range of progressive organisations and events.

In 2018 Founders and Coders, a free and socially-oriented coding school, joined, and continues to be a key anchor tenant to this day. We also hired Maddy to support Polly in running the space.

In 2019 we moved up the road to a bigger and better space, thanks to Islington Council and their support for cooperatives and democratic ownership. We pioneered their Affordable Workspace programme, supporting them to deliver on their Community Wealth Building strategy and innovating on their use of the TOMs social value matrix.

In 2021, Islington asked us to run a programme of Cooperative Development Support for the borough. We delivered ‘Cooperate Islington’ – an 18-month programme of business support including £80k of grant money so that cooperatives had the skills, network and capacity to grow their businesses into the local economy. We also helped other organisations like Camden Disability Action to establish meaningful place-based communities.

In 2022 we were awarded a two-year grant by the Disrupt Foundation to deliver a programme of public education. We hired another member of staff, Natasha, as Events and Partnerships Coordinator. We are now home to a thriving events programme with 3+ events a week bringing over 2k people into our space every year.

We help like-minded clients to do the same.

We’ve acquired a wealth of experience through everything we’ve achieved at SPACE4 and we want to share our expertise. So we offer ourselves as consultants.

It’s our mission to contribute to systemic change through the ethical business movement, progressive local economy strategies, and purpose-driven spaces.

The SPACE4 Team

Maddy Neghabian

Polly Robbins

Natasha Natarajan