May’s topic for CreativeMornings was Serendipity. Who would be better to take us through this topic than Mariana Duarte Silva, the Serendipity herself.
Mariana Duarte Silva is a mother of 3 boys and founder of Village Underground - a co-working and events space housed located in Alcantara, Lisbon. Village Underground is known for its unique architectural structure made of shipping containers and double decker buses, recycled into office spaces.

Very recently Village Underground celebrated its 10 year anniversary in Lisbon, and Mariana started her talk by playing the video they made to celebrate the remarkable date. Village Underground appeared to be all about community - events, parties, creativity, activities for children, and much more than a co-working space.
Serendipity is not an easy topic. Not even an easy word. Mariana shared her struggles on how she was looking for a right format of her talk, and how she searched for help. Finally it was her dear friend, Paul Bay, from London who offered a helping hand. So, that´s where we started - what serendipity is and how it has showed up in Mariana’s life:

“Serendipity is the opposite of Predictability. If we get comfortable with routine, we condition ourselves not to see the happy accidents when they come along..”

“Serendipity is about seeing opportunities where others see problems. We thus make connections that others don’t.”

“Serendipity is about making connections that “normal thinking” doesn’t make. So it can uncover wrong assumptions in life.”

So, what were the happy accidents Mariana’s life that brought her to where she is now?
We can start by her father getting divorce while her mother got a job in his building. It was love that happened by a lucky chance, and led to Mariana’s birth.
Another happy accident, another moment of serendipity, the one that completely changed her life was the job she got in London - in a very small media company, right in the street where Village Underground London is located.
So that’s how it all started. In 2007, Mariana started working for this small media company and every day she would pass this weird scenery of four tube carriages piled on top of each other, with people going in and out. One day, Mariana and her friend, Joana, quit their jobs and moved their office to one those carriages. That’s when Mariana felt her life was about to change.
Her new office was shivering cold in the winter and scorching hot in the summer. But Mariana believed this was the coolest office in the world and decided to open the same concept in Lisbon. “Let’s do it” was the response of Village Underground in London.
It’s worth remembering that this was at a time Lisbon was very different from what it is now. There was very little room for creativity, co-working spaces were a foreign concept and there was Mariana, trying to create a co-working space out of shipping containers. After 3 years of knocking at closed doors, Mariana finally got a meeting with Carris (Portuguese company for bus public transports) who gave her three old buses. Once the location was found at the Museum of Carris, Village Underground Lisboa was born.