WOMADE opens a new chapter in Brussels

When Alba Pregja first spoke with WeLoveBrussels in 2021, WOMADE was a coworking space for women in central Brussels. Five years later, WOMADE has a new home, but the idea behind it has stayed much the same. What has changed is what surrounds it.

The new space is home to both WOMADE and ame, two connected but separate parts of Pregja’s vision. WOMADE remains a women-only, members-only coworking community. Ame, the café and design space located within the new building, is open to everyone.

The name ame is personal. Pregja said people had told her for years that she puts a lot of “soul” into the things she creates, making the name feel fitting for a space built around her family, creativity and love of design.

ame is also where Pregja’s original idea for WOMADE comes full circle.

Before WOMADE existed, Pregja dreamed of opening a concept store where people could discover art in a warmer, more accessible environment. She loved art and design but often felt that galleries were places where she did not belong.

Instead, she first built the community she felt was missing. In 2020, Pregja opened WOMADE as a space where women could work, connect and support one another. In a 2021 interview with We Love Brussels, she described it as a community and safe space for women.

WOMADE gave her the supportive community and sense of belonging she had been looking for. Armed with the confidence, Pregja eventually returned to her long-term dream of creating a concept store. That vision has now become ame.

AME, the café and design hub, features art, furniture and brands that will change over time. The showroom is being developed in collaboration with Enky, a Franco-Belgian startup, with pieces planned to rotate regularly. The artwork will also change by theme.

Pregja wants ame to be a place where people can discover design without feeling like they need to already be part of the design world.

“I want people to feel like they belong here,” she said.

That sense of belonging has been at the center of Pregja’s work from the beginning. The new space also gives WOMADE more room to grow. Its members have their own coworking area, while other parts of the building can host workshops, classes and events.

For Pregja, the move came after a period of questioning what she wanted WOMADE to become. The previous space had become limiting, both physically and geographically, and she began looking for a space that could support a larger vision.

When she first visited the new building, she was considering it as a potential coworking space. Then she began to see what else it could become.

“I like the wow effect as well,” she said. “When you come, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, this is a hidden gem.’”

The result is not a replacement for WOMADE, but an expansion of the ideas that have surrounded it from the beginning.

WOMADE remains the women-only community Pregja built. ame is open to everyone.

Together, the two spaces bring Pregja’s ideas about community, art, design and belonging under one roof.

To learn more about Pregja’s passion for design and the ideas behind WOMADE, read We Love Brussels’ 2021 interview with her.

Article by Madison Wright