association [associazione]
4,000 hours donated every year to the community and the city.
Since 27 January 2012
We were born in Palermo at a moment when the city badly needed concrete answers to the employment crisis through sharing. We felt the need to reinvent ourselves inside a community space that Palermo was still lacking: a place where work wasn't just a solitary activity, but an act of responsibility towards the place we live in.
neu [nòi] was brought to life by Michelangelo Pavia and Beppe Castellucci, united by a vision for a way of working founded on sustainability, inclusion and social entrepreneurship.
Why neu [nòi]?
Sometimes people just don’t understand each other. Language changes, languages mix, listening is reduced.
Sometimes, however, a misunderstanding can become an engine of creativity, as long as you move on from the mere conflict. Our name is a dialogue between two different languages, German and Italian. A term whose pronunciation is identical in the two languages but that in one indicates the new → neu, and in the other indicates a community → noi (us). An invitation to improve ourselves but with a community approach and above all an invitation not to take ourselves too seriously.
Palazzo Castrofilippo, Kalsa
Our home is at via Alloro 64, inside the noble courtyard of Palazzo Castrofilippo, an 18th-century historic residence in the heart of the Kalsa district. Working in what used to be the palace's stables carries real meaning: we chose a quiet space, set back from the street, to preserve an atmosphere of calm and privacy while staying right in the pulsing centre of the city.
The urban context of via Alloro is fundamental to our identity. The Kalsa is where we experiment with neighbourhood-level welfare, and where we launched projects like Orbita (via Alloro 95), reclaiming the former School Museum, abandoned for 12 years, and giving it back to the community.
Facing the noble courtyard is a social kitchen — the real beating heart of the space, where local and international coworkers meet for slow, communal lunches.
Coworking Monday–Friday, 9am–6:30pm · events every day, 8am–11pm
Those who act, decide.
Do-ocracy is our governance model: decision-making power and responsibility aren't handed down from above, they come from each person's direct commitment and concrete action. Members stop being passive users of a service and become active co-managers of a shared resource.
A real example: our Book Club was born in 2022 from the spontaneous proposal of a member who, following the principle of do-ocracy, took care of it with the support of the rest of the community.
We chose this model because we wanted to move beyond the top-down, commercial logic of service delivery. Horizontal participation lets anyone champion an idea, turning membership "duty" into a measurable opportunity for growth and reciprocity.
Today, 19 members actively take part in hosting and running the space day to day. More than 10 projects have been born and grown through do-ocracy: Coworking, Sementor, Book Club, MercolEdù, Caffè Vuci, ZERO, Digital Dojo and more.
19 members
neu [nòi] is governed through do-ocracy by 19 members with backgrounds ranging from architecture to engineering, from sociology to the performing arts.
The NEU Social Currency
To give value to care work and internal reciprocity, we introduced the NEU, a complementary social currency managed through our Time Bank. When the association has specific needs (hosting shifts, staffing, maintenance), members offer their time and receive NEU credits in return.
Credits earned can be used to access coworking services for free, or to exchange skills peer-to-peer: small jobs, consulting, support. A circular economy that makes us less dependent on outside money flows.
The NEU Social Currency project launched in September 2024. The figures shown refer to its first year of testing.
The network
We're not interested in formal relationships on paper. Our network is made of people and associations we build things with, from the ground up.
- New European BauhausPartner ufficiale della Commissione Europea dal 2022 per la bellezza urbana
- Rewild SicilyNuovo percorso comune di tutela ambientale e sostenibilità (2024)
- Teatro AtlanteCampagna H2Oh! e attività culturali nel quartiere Kalsa
- booq / ALAB / CesvopFondatori di ZERO, Biblioteca delle Cose, economia circolare di prossimità
- Idea e AzioneCo-gestione di Orbita e ponte con UEPE per la giustizia riparativa
- SendAgenzia per il lavoro e promotrice di numerosi progetti di educazione in cui spesso neu [nòi] è stata coinvolta, come ad esempio il percorso formativo Build & Bond
- Fablab PalermoCompetenze tecniche condivise e percorsi di formazione
- Università CattolicaProgetto Nest4Work: ricerca scientifica sul benessere nei coworking