Alternative co-working in Milan

Hospitable, pleasant and comfortable, Otto is a simple and authentic place, dotted with green walls and vintage pieces, located, despite the name, in via Paolo Sarpi 10 in Milan. The idea with which it was born in 2015 is immediate: bringing people together in a beautiful, natural, genuine place, with a large multi -function: co-working but also projections, business meetings, exhibitions and so on. Then over the years the needs only evolved, until the pandemic which accelerated - and exasperated - everything.

Read also: the Otto's interior project in via Sarpi in Milan

Evolution in the name of simplicity

At the same time, the Otto project has also evolved: the Milanese venue has expanded with oTTo cose, a store of objects and accessories for the home, while at Stromboli the summer version was born, Otto a ~ mare (read here). The Aeolian island is also the rough and magical place where the workshop cycle takes place OSA . The mantra remains that of the origin: beautiful things in their simplicity.

Read also : Otto's summer workshops in Stromboli

From open and free space to an unmanageable and economically unsustainable place

Otto was born to leave everyone freelancers, students and people with small houses a large, airy, bright and green space where they can work together.

“After a while we realized that it was a somewhat naive, impractical and economically unsustainable idea ” explains Roberto Marone , Otto's shareholder and director.

“ Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people came in for work from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening. At one point we were literally overrun: in the morning there was a queue before opening and there was really no place left to have a coffee or a beer.

Everything happened: people who brought their Macs, lunch from home, sprays, paints, plotter prints as big as 2 tables, and even 3D printers.

At a certain point the call notes were written on the walls in pen. It all really happened, I'm not exaggerating. In short, oTTo was no longer a bar, but a huge anarchic (and free) public room. It was unmanageable”.

The need for strict rules and the consequent criticisms

“So we had to run for cover, correct the shot and impose strict rules: we could only work on very few tables and only a few hours a day” continues Marone. “For this rigor we took the insults - euphemism - of half Milan, as well as a few hundred vitriolic reviews. Then, as a joke, in 2018 we made a video (see here) which made 40 thousand views. Even today, seeing it makes us smile a lot”.

Now Otto changes his mind and proposes a hybrid formula

Meanwhile the world has changed: these pandemic years have changed personal and professional conditions, opening up possibilities (and mentality).

Many more people work in smartworking and more and more are asking to be able to return to work in the room, which is as welcoming, bright, luxuriant and domestic as it is functional. So Otto thinks about it and tries to offer a new proposal hybrid - calibrated - from the approach more regulated and less improvised.

The new rules and the affordable price

From Monday 7 November some things have changed since Otto:

• hours: from Monday to Friday the restaurant opens earlier in the morning, at 9.30, and you can work until at 18.30, excluding a short lunch break.
• you can work on any table, even on the terrace, and as many as you like.
• there is a low price: 6 euros for half a day and 10 euros for all day.
• the price includes free coffee and self service.

“It's an affordable price for anyone. We care a lot about this" Marone specifies, which does rule out the possibility of introducing a sort of monthly subscription in the future.

Get involved by experimenting. And recalibrating if necessary

“Let's get involved” concludes Roberto Marone. “Maybe we are the first to do it with this formula, so, at least for now, I hope customers are lenient if something doesn't work and if we change something: we will gradually try different solutions”.

And it appeals to all users “obviously we are terrified: promise us that we will not find ourselves again with 3d printers, spray glues, and walls full of writings!”

But what you breathe, in addition to a good dose of concern (which can be shared), is happiness: the happiness of those who know how to change their minds with measure, courtesy and (mental) openness. “After all these years, these last two being so intense, we really like the ' idea of ​​experimenting with a hybrid formula but above all to try doing new things”.