Elo House · Campo de Ourique · Lisbon
Eleven rooms. A few understandings. The rest is left to you.
The shape of it
Elo House is small on purpose. The rules below are not a contract. They are the understandings that keep a room worth being in.
A guest shapes the room as much as a member does.
Tuesdays are for guests.
Bring the person you want the room to meet. Tell the curator in advance so we can look after them properly. A good guest on a Tuesday is how the house finds its next member.
Friday Pours are flagged ahead.
Not every week. Always by invitation. Check the calendar before you invite and let the curator know who is coming.
Guests are welcome in the social rooms, not at a desk.
If a guest needs to work alongside you, the curator approves it in advance, or not at all. The workspaces are for members. This is the line that keeps membership meaningful.
A guest who becomes a pattern should become a member.
If the room is enjoying someone repeatedly, we would like to know them properly.
Children when the calendar invites them.
Parts of our programming are for families - the calendar will say so. Outside of those events, Elo House is a room for adult conversation.
An introduction made here carries more weight than one made anywhere else. Treat it that way.
When we introduce you, we are vouching for both of you.
Reply to the message. Follow through on the coffee. If it is not the right fit, say so kindly but say something.
Ask for the introduction you actually want.
The curator knows the room. Vague requests produce vague introductions. Tell us what you are working on and who you would like to know.
Do not forward a member's contact without asking.
The house works because people know their information stays inside it. If a friend of yours should meet a member, tell the member or us.
The introduction is a beginning, not a transaction.
You are not owed a client, a cheque, or a favour. You are offered a person. What happens after is on the two of you.
The conversations are real because the room is safe.
You can say you were here.
You do not say what was said. Names, ideas, introductions, the things people are working on. All of it stays in the room.
No photography, no filming, no recording.
Not of the space, not of each other, not of your screen if others are visible.
The Curiosity Wall and the Elo app are for members.
What moves through our digital space and our wall is not shared outside the house. If a member writes something you want to forward, ask them first.
Each room has a register. Match it and the house works.
The Sun Lounger
The slowest seat in the house. For the conversations and calls with your shoes off. Enjoying a drink in the sun and pondering the world also welcome.
The Conservatory
A speaking room. Light work, casual meetings, calls at a normal register. If the conversation needs a closed door, it is not happening here.
The Amphitheatre
Collaborative by day, programmed by night. When the calendar takes the room, the room is the calendar. Arrive before it starts, or wait until after.
The Alcove
The seat between one thing and the next. A perch, not a residency. Settle in elsewhere.
The Private Meeting Room
One door, one conversation. Bookable. A closed door means the room is held. If you run over, tell the person waiting.
The Forum
Calls and meetings kept to a minimum. This is the room where the work gets done.
The Salon
Sofas, lamplight, low tables. Meeting a member over a long idea is exactly right. Calls belong in The Sun Lounger or the Private Meeting Room.
The Studio
The room that changes shape. Fitness in the morning, workshops by day, supper by night. The calendar has the room. When it is fitness, it is fitness. When it is supper, it is supper.
The Terrace
Outside, with enough shade for laptops and enough sun for daydreaming. The neighbourhood can see you. Act accordingly.
The Dressing Room
An L-shaped room with character. Bookable for calls or the kind of quiet thinking that wants a door. The door closing is the only signal needed.
The Concourse
The open working perch. The seat for being in the room while you work - interruptible by design. Deeper focus belongs in The Forum.
The curator and the team are not waitstaff. They are the reason this works.
They know you, quietly and on your behalf.
They will know things about you - what you are building, who you are trying to meet, where you are stuck - and they will use that knowledge quietly, on your behalf.
Treat them as the most useful person in your professional life.
Because they are.
The room is the last place anything gets handled.
Bring it to the curator.
If a conversation, a guest, a member, or a moment has made the house feel smaller than it should, tell the curator. Privately.
Membership is a matter of ongoing consent, on both sides.
Membership may also be ended by the house.
Quietly, if the understandings above are not held. This has never been necessary. We do not expect it to be.
And one more
Be the kind of person the room is glad to see.
If you are not sure what that means, you are probably already it.