Diyode Community Workshop has served the community of Guelph since 2010. We provide tools, space and community for people interested in woodworking, metalworking, electronics, prototyping and all sorts of other making.

We knew that this time would come, but it is finally here. Diyode needs some help, and we’re hoping you folks out in internetland might have some insight. Our current home is going to be torn down and redeveloped in the next few months. We need to find a new home where we can flourish and continue to serve the community.

We’ve been in our current location since we started over 7 years ago, and have built our community workshop into one of the most successful makerspaces in Canada. In our time here, we have helped all sorts of local organizations with building projects, parade floats, prototyping expertise and other resources. We have helped local businesses like Grey Rock Co, Children’s Art Factory, Science and Sons, and Fantescapes launch their businesses and build the items they need. Four of our members have built homes for themselves at Diyode through tiny homes, yurts and bus conversions.

As a group, we have built innovative new tools for teaching electronics and programming to kids, and travelled to many schools in the area, introducing kids in grades 3 through 7 to the joys of coding. And we have built tools in the shop to help people in third-world countries, most recently installing a plastic recycling system in a community centre in Haiti.

We have done all this with funding only from our membership fees, a few grants, and sales of our projects. This was possible, in part, because we had a decent space at a very reasonable price. We hope to keep up this level of awesome, but to do so, we need to find a stable home at a sustainable price.

We are looking for a light industrial space between 2000 and 5000 sqft, ideally less than $10 / sqft / year. Being near downtown or on a bus route would be ideal, as we have many lower-income members without their own transportation.

This is our list of need and wants:

Must Haves:

Light Industrial space

>2000 sqft

< $14 / sqft / year

Concrete pad in some of the space for metal shop

100 Amp 2 phase power

Washroom

Centrally located or on bus route

At least 6 parking spots

Nice to haves:

3 phase power

>3000 sqft

< $10 /sqft / year

Bay door

spray booth (smaller)

clean drying room with intermittent exhaust fan for stained/finished wood projects

office area with separate entrance and bathroom for multi-age multi-discipline classroom area

Metal shop are to be twice as big (?)

Separate entrance to “clean area” with separate washroom for public/ children/ tasks involving clean, safe, well lit working space. (addresses many needs, including increasing the percentage of women / special needs / other members of community not served at present)

Parking for up to 20

If you know of any spaces, or anyone who might be able to help us in our search, your help would be forever appreciated.

Thank you for your help, from all of us at Diyode.