And continues.

Today the bulk of the work for our staircase into the mezzanine / recording studio area was completed… Using F17 LVL load bearing beams as our material of choice (the same type of beam we use to spam the mezzanine), we’ve attempted to maintain a style consistency in terms of exposed wood. Shortly after beginning construction of the mezzanine, we decided to make it soundproof for use as a podcasting/film editing/sound design studio, and have insulated both the floor and ceiling with acoustical grade batts. On Wednesday the double glazed V-LAM Hush laminate glass windows with argon gas arrive, which means things are getting closer to lockup and pure silence on the second level…. My good friend Simon came to help for two days, laying external paneling along the floating wall, which has nicely accented our isosceles shaped windows. The curvature of the ceiling and complexity of the window shapes made the job a whole lot more difficult (and also a whole lot more visually interesting).

The kitchen is still a work in progress, however studs have been cut and await dynabolting and further sound insulation. The bathroom is awaiting cement sheeting and tiling, however we have a temporary hand basin and a completed (but not 100% finished) second toilet.

At long last our gas mains extension has been run through the building (at great expense)… We’re really trying to keep our co-working space truly green, not only with offset power, but also in terms of our appliances, and heating and cooling. With such a large space, our research has shown for heating that Aira natural gas infrared heaters were going to be the most energy efficient, and also cost effective solution. Although, now that it’s nearly summer, we have the opposite problem of cooling, and are now researching the best air conditioning systems. Last week we installed a small 2.7kw air conditioner in the mezzanine, however for the larger cooling of the primary 200sqm space, we’ll be requiring in the vicinity of 30kw’s…

Our space is progressing, however as just two guys also running other businesses (and in Marty’s case, also taking care of his awesome family), there is only so much time in a day… That said, things are truly beginning to take shape, and we both have no doubt in our minds that the Electron Workshop is going to be one of the most impressive co-working spaces around.

Built by hackers, for hackers.

So far, all the work at the Workshop has been done by just the two founders (except for the sandblasting)! Not bad for a couple of programmers.

by Aaron Tester