Next to the waters of Amsterdam-Noord as a part of the NDSM complex where concerts, fairs, markets and other events are being organized, new neighborhood of containers is being built. These new constructions are numerous, colorful, on top of each other and go by the name of Treehouse. Described complex of creative studios will offer workspace containers to artists who wish to create, collaborate, and share their art with society and the world. There will be individual studios, an exhibition and performance hall, four smaller showcases, and the main square. Some of the containers are already in use and the creative program is already in the works.
Container - boat - sea - pirates - Treehouse
The basic idea behind Treehouse is to present an inexpensive and inclusive work space for artists who will participate in collaborative and creative working environments, open to public. In order to achieve this low-budget harmony, artists will organize an assembly making sure that every idea can become a decision and every decision is being made collectively. Tenants will also have the possibility to help around the complex and perform various chores in order to “keep the place going”, lower their rent and earn an allowance.
Cultural coin – Culto
Because “you need a lot of facilities in order to organize a community” - artist and enabler, organizer and curator, manager and activist Dierck “Felix” Roosen adopted an idea of having Culto - a common coin already in use on the Commonfare platform, as a common coin used in Treehouse. Culto is custom made by dyne.org and transformed from Social Wallet API (SWAPI) to create a communal financial system making sure people inside the community are paid for their work in a proportional and fair way.
There is a lot of studios where people work behind closed doors but “community means that you create this little village with variety of services,” and you open the doors to the public and society. As they say in New Orleans: “We want neighbors, not tourists.”
That is why Culto is created as an alternative currency that will bring money back to the people. The idea is simple: Treehouse members as well as outsiders can use Culto to pay for food and beverages in the complex’s bar/restaurant, buy tickets for the organized community events, donate to artists they like and similar - if you use Culto, you use it where you can pay with it. In that way wealth created by the community will stay in the community.
Coin – mobile phone – QR code – beer
Culto will be used for transactions happening between Treehousers for the services they provide and the food and beverages organization sells. Possible scenarios will include artists that have worked in a bar for one hour, got paid in Culto and the next thing you know, they are having burgers and beers in a community restaurant paying with the money they have earned working for their fellow colleagues and neighbors.
The system in place will be very similar to coins we pay for entering festivals, users will have applications on their phones or samples of attributing QR codes around their necks, but there will be one big difference: Culto can be exchanged back! The amount of common coin you buy with euros can be exchanged back if you wish to leave and never come back, but note that loyalty pays off in Treehouse. Various loyalty programs will be put in place so that Culto believers can benefit from their cultivated nature.
New opportunity for Commoners
New possibilities will be created for commoners coming to Amsterdam: taking the ferry from the Centraal station to NDSM (it is free), listen to a concert, hang out with artists, eating good food, drinking liqueurs of good time and pay for all that with the most cultivated coin in the world - Culto. Support the community, provide for your soul!
All the extra information is available at: https://www.ndsmtreehouse.nl/
