Coworking: Working Individual, Feeling Plural
The traditional ways of working are losing their charm more and more every day, and new and creative ways emerge in high end office design. The new employees or entrepreneurs ask for more! People started to realize everyone is different in terms of productivity, working style, motivation…etc. For instance; some people are inspired in the early hours of the day while the rest are sleeping and for others it is impossible to start the day before 10.00 a.m. It is so important for some to end the day when the sun goes down whereas some like to work till midnight. That’s why there is a rapid change in working spaces in the last decade. People want to work in tailor-made working places and they want to organize their own schedules to be able to control their own time.
The history of co-working spaces
In 1995 one hacker and 17 computer engineers created one of the first ever “hackerspaces”. This was a place to exchange ideas and codes, and to meet like-minded people. Then in 1999 a video game designer Bernard De Koven coined the term co-working by focusing on the term “work” not the “space”. The first true co-working space was set up in 2002 in an old factory, the first residents were freelancers, startups, consultants, and even architects. Also in 2005 Brad Neuberg rented a space at a feminist collective called Spiral Muse in the Mission district of San Francisco. All those were game changers and bad news for traditional, boring offices with cubicles and the cue to modern interior design to come up with new high end office designs.
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Co-working spaces in today’s world with numbers
With the change in high end office design, we see that there are nearly 19,000 co-working spaces worldwide and 3 million coworkers globally in 2019. Some of the very well-known architects designed some of those places and raised the bar till today. 65% of people working in these spaces are younger than 40. Freelancers are still the largest co-working demographic in the world. The IT industry has the largest number of coworkers, followed by PR, marketing and sales. Besides, women make up around 40% of the co-working workforce. By the end of 2019 there will be an estimated 696 new co-working spaces in the US and 1,688 worldwide.
What is the secret of co-working spaces?
Although attracting new members is the biggest challenge for co-working spaces and only 42% of co-working spaces globally were profitable in 2018 we cannot deny its positive effects on work productivity and its reflections in high end office design.
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An aesthetic and flexible way for a high end office design
Why is that? People like the freedom of accessing their workplace 7/24. Also, aesthetic, clean, tidy and flexible spaces increase work motivation. The best places of work are well-lighted, wide spaces that are integrated with nature/green. People need playgrounds in their workspace as well; coffees, libraries, gardens, chat rooms, restaurants… etc.
The new generation creative co-working spaces have different areas for different needs. As an example, you can work in an open office to answer your e-mails and finish your tasks as well as organizing a fast lunch meeting with your colleagues at the food court of the space. There are private areas to make online calls or meeting rooms to get together with your customers, as well. So, all of these aspects have to be considered thoroughly in a high end office design.
Working from multiple places
Nowadays people prefer to work in multiple places which includes home, co-working space, coffee houses. In addition to all these, employees or entrepreneurs of today prefer to socialize with other people to learn some new skills and network. Most probably it is because the new generation of workers have learnt via social media that networking can make anything possible.
It is obvious that hierarchical working models are disappearing, the systems that value freedom and individuality grow stronger. People don’t believe working should mean obeying rules or making the same stuff without questioning any more. They want creativity, inspiration, productivity, meaningful outcomes, friendship and fun while working. And we as an architecture firm consider all the needs, integrate them with the design and come up with the most efficient high end office design.