It’s nestled in a nondescript lane next to the iconic Woodlands Hotel on RK Salai. In fact, if you happen to be speeding past, you might just miss it. But turn in, and you’ll find a lovely little bylane basking in the shade of towering trees. And, right at the end of the lane stands a lone building with a glass façade.
This is where Karya Space, a coworking space operates from. A winding wooden staircase leads up to the office where, by day, several entrepreneurs busily key away at their systems and hold meetings in its conference rooms.
By night, it’s another story altogether. The coworking space transforms into a hotspot for game nights and Pecha Kucha events, with several voluntary organisations also taking up the space to organise meet-ups and brainstorm their next course of action.
Set up by Arjjun Chander, Karya caters to a wide set of clientèle. “We are a fully-serviced coworking space for Karya residents or Karyans, as we call those who take our Hermit or Social plans. We’re also an anti-café, a meeting spot, or just a quiet place where daily users can get brief work done. It’s ideal for people who’d rather look beyond a regular café. That said, we’re also a community centre in terms of hosting networking organisations, NGOs, student organisations and other community-oriented initiatives,” says Chander.
‘Daily gypsies’
In fact, the place is a popular choice for Chennai Board Gamers, who are trying to rebuild the board gaming culture in the city. “We also host white-collared corporate MNCs, SMEs, startups and even freelancers who want a place away from home or a café to work,” says Chander, adding, “Karya is slowly changing the way people view coworking spaces as we often get walk-in users, who we call ‘Daily Gypsies’.”
The idea for Karya (launched in 2015) came about when Chander, who has, in the past, been a strategy consultant in the US and India, found himself working alone out of client offices in various metros. “I found the atmosphere very sombre; not an ideal situation for someone working alone. Smaller companies, startups or even large MNCs with small corporate teams don’t usually have the budget to create a complete work space environment. That’s how Karya came about.”
But, not wanting to restrict itself to being just a coworking space, Karya consciously tries to host a mixed bag of events each month.
So, from Startup Saturdays and Pecha Kucha in a 20-20 format to Open Sky that had a student organisation perform songs and poetry, to the board gaming night, it has witnessed a host of events.
With multiple conference rooms, workstations and a well-stocked pantry, Karya is often the hotbed for discussions and ideas taking seed. And, the coworking space is also set to organise its first ever event, a Summer Social Market, soon.
