News & Blog

Three years ago, I was approached by a magazine editor asking me where I saw the future of office spaces. I smugly replied ‘A whole load of sofas’.

Years later, we receive design specifications that have the following brief.

• For every occupant, 0.8 desks are required.
• For every desk 1.1 Collaboration seats are required

We haven’t swapped all the desks out yet, but they sure are on the decline. Collaborative spaces are growing within the workspace quite rapidly.

What if you are a group of 4 that’s looking to change the world. Resources are limited and more over you want to get your infrastructure up and running with as little equity given out to venture capitalists.

Coworking seems to be the answer for most budding startups.

A whopping 10,000 coworking spaces are expected to be open by the end of 2016 across the world. The Global Coworking survey suggests 61% of all coworking spaces are planning on expanding, while a third of them are looking to open a second site indicating a very positive outlook.

So what is coworking?

noun: coworking
the use of an office or other working environment by people who are self-employed or working for different employers, typically so as to share equipment, ideas, and knowledge.
"the whole idea of coworking is to bring bright, creative people together and let the ideas collide"

Why is coworking so popular?

Autonomy - Each person can choose their way of working based on their task, which may not always be available at their place of work
Networking opportunities - the sheer number of startups, freelancers and expertise available create endless possibilities & opportunities
Amenities available - Free Wi-fi, weekly seminars, high profile guest speakers
Allows scalability of workforce while keeping your real estate cost minimal
A great place to get hired considering the vast majority are startups

Who uses it?

Currently Co-working has attracted freelancers and start-ups at best, while it’s yet to get some traction with small businesses especially in the Middle East where legislation on starting a business is a little more stringent.

What does the future look like?

As many organizations are allowing their employees to carve out time from their busy days to think and ideate, they are still being bogged down by distractions within the workspace. Coffee shops are too noisy and the home has way too many comforts to stay focused.

Considering most breakthrough ideas form when a piece of an ideas collides. It is possible to envision large organizations buying memberships in coworking spaces worldwide to allow ideas to take new form and have each person take time to stumble upon nuggets of information that helps them complete their ideas and drive innovation. Currently most companies are still quite cagey, though I do believe the culture will shift and we will start to harness the true force of a connected economy.

Resources:
(Steven Johnson - Where Good Ideas Come from).
DeskMag’s Global CoWorking Survey