Inspired by the coworking movement, corporations around the world have started to break down their cubical walls and replace them with open-plan workspaces in order to ease both their business and employees into the workplace of the future.

Yet, there are still some types of enterprise that would seem to have a hard time redefining themselves, and one of those is the bank. The banking industry seems to be defined by the barriers set between the customer and the teller. A space that can be utilized only for business transactions and leaves little room for collaboration and change.

As we prepare for the upcoming Social Workplace conference, we set out to find how far coworking’s reach has extended and found that some banks are already adopting the model. We found 5 international banks that are reaping the benefits of coworking, whether it’s supporting an existing space or even opening their own.   

NAB, Australia

The Australian Financial Review recently wrote piece highlighting the convergence of banks and coworking spaces. This is not just good for employee well-being, but the growth also gives anyone with a real estate footprint the chance to cater to the market. The National Australia Bank has opened their own space, The Village, which has seen great success. For banks, the coworking and social workplace model, gives them the chance to use their space more efficiently and also attract new clients while satisfying the current ones.

St. George Bank, Australia

St. George Bank, owned by the Westpac Banking Corporation, opened their first space last year and has just recently opened a second one. Phillip Godkin explained in an article on AFR that the coworking model has created a sense of community amongst their small – businesses customer, which has been good for the bank overall. Their space, Business Hub, is committed to helping small businesses get their start and offers memberships to those who are both customers and non-customers.

BNP Paribas Fortis, Belgium 

Located in the center of Brussels, co. Station is home to a variety of young companies and business starters “geared to supporting fledgling digital enterprises at the growth stage – known as ‘scale-ups’ – which are in search of the right people with the right expertise to help them take the next step”. The space has forged a partnership with Belgian bank BNP Paribas Fortis, in order to offer the resources to innovative companies that will ensure their success in an increasingly social ecosystem.

KBC, Belgium 

In cooperation with BelCham, the Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce, KBC bank opened a shared workspace in mid-town Manhattan, Atelier. The space caters to members who are looking to expand their business in the United States, and offers regular meetups that aim to help their coworkers to become acquainted with what’s happening in the European business world as well as in the US. Coworkers range from family offices, to Angel investors; VC’s and various selected members that focus on entrepreneurial projects.

Silicon Valley Bank, USA

The Silicon Valley Bank doesn’t have it’s own space but is part of the “urban core” strategy, which utilizes coworking spaces in order to become more approachable. In Austin, Texas, the bank moved from their office building to a location that puts them in close proximity to coworking spaces like WeWork.

As Silicon Valley Bank is dedicated to working with tech companies; being close to open workspaces allows them to have access to a pool of local entrepreneurs, which ultimately brings in new business.

Conjunctured Coworking in Austin, Texas (USA) was easily one of the city’s most well-loved spaces. After 6 productive years, Conjunctured closed its doors and the partners have now moved on to their latest project: The OpenWork Agency. The platform offers clients, from traditional offices to government agencies consultation on how to leverage the traditional coworking model in order “build community, commitment, and greater levels of engagement, serendipity, and innovation.”

How a coworking space imagines corporate coworking

Austin is an economic boomtown with newcomers locating there every day. Many people looking for a coworking space in the city end up at Conjunctured, run by very attentive, forward-thinking people with an eye for design and a heart for mankind. They are launching a pioneering initiative called corporate coworking, bring the coworking model into the heart of the corporate body in order to reshape and revitalize corporate structure so they attract and retain the best minds the U.S. workforce has to offer. Meanwhile, David Walker works on transcending the stranger society.

So how does one restructure a somewhat rigid system and integrate a social and creative side, which will be able to benefit people and business? David Walker has been tweaking the website to formally launch the Conjunctured’s new pivot, which takes the idea of a coworking ecosystem and combines it with corporations looking to rediscover their culture and rediscover the heart of their organization. Call it cultural evolution consulting.

He’s lucky to have, co-running the Conjunctured team, the esteemed Thomas Heatherly, a former marketing field specialist at Google who calls Conjunctured’s coworking community a friendship machine and works to connect the space to the external community, and Drew Jones, a corporate behavior anthropologist/professor who helped put together the first book on coworking.

After he read an article in 2006 about the very first coworking space in San Francisco called The Spiral Muse, he had been collecting clippings about every article that came out on coworking while teaching full-time at a business school in England. His new book,The Fifth Age of Work, will be out in late October/early November. Jones has the gift of looking ahead by recognizing the interweaving patterns of cultural trends.

“I knew it was the beginning of a pattern,” he said. “There were, at that time, already 20 million freelancers and it just made sense.”

It was Jones’ idea to combine coworking with corporations to help corporate bodies evolve with the new demands and expectations that go hand in hand with the types of recruits growing up in today’s workforce. The guys at Conjunctured love to quote the statistic that by 2020, 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will be a freelance economy. It’s the mantra that drives them.

“There’s not a coworking space yet that is putting together an offering that is presenting coworking to companies as a change management process,” Jones said. “Companies of all sorts are at different points in their growth. They look to change directions, recruit different sorts of people, or they’re going through a merger, trying to be more mindful of the values they want to try to support in the company.”

They’ll do this by, for one, focusing on opening up the physical space and designing different areas to benefit a range of tasks. Jones doesn’t take all the credit; corporate coworking is Conjunctured’s twist on “activity-based work,” a parallel movement taking place in Germany, the Netherlands, some of the UK and primarily in Australia, Jones said. It’s a concept a Dutch consulting firm first put on the map and started using.

They are inviting a selection of companies around Austin and Houston for daylong workshops to introduce them to the concept of coworking, back up how it works and present it as an option.

“We’ll start that in August; time it with the publication of my book at the end of October so to tie these together,” Jones said. “Come fall, we’ll be much more aggressively supporting this concept. These are new concepts for lots of people, they don’t sink in quickly for many people.”

Welcome To Conjunctured, Are You Familiar With Coworking?

Austin is an economic boom town with newcomers relocating there every day.

It boasts a high rate of successful established coworking spaces all over the city, including Link and Posh Coworking in the North/Central area;Brainstorm Coworking, Opportunity Space, Perch Coworking, Soma Vida, Conjunctured, Space 12, Chicon Collective and Center61 in the East area; GoLab Austin and Capital Factory downtown;  and the art-heavy Vuka located South of downtown. People looking for the perfect coworking space to suit their needs in Austin try a few different ones before settling on their favorite. Many people end up at Conjunctured, the first free-standing coworking house in the United States.

During the 1920s, a family lived in this very house and stored wine in the cellar during Prohibition. Today people work here with the open freedom to bring out their full personality in an office environment. The Conjunctured house has three rooms with large, sleek wooden table where people work at their laptops and thin desktops.

Down the hall there is a bathroom with a sink that holds stones, so when you wash your hands it’s a little like being at a little river; a Zen-garden lagoon below your hands, if you will; a more romantic way to wash up. Across from the little washroom is the conference room, where a ping-pong table doubles as a conference table. There’s a kitchen with a full coffee bar, and around the corner from that is the fridge they keep in the lounge room, equipped with lime-green couches, musical instruments, magazines and a scalp massager.

Sometimes it’s full of lively chatter, jokes and brainstorming, and sometimes there’s just one person half-passed out for a post-lunch siesta.

The One-Week Trial

David Walker is working on a theory he calls Transcending the Stranger Society, wherein coworking spaces are the world’s first cultural stepping stone for a stranger-less environment.

“It’s really funny that we live in a society where you go to a coffee shop and you sit next to someone for hours on end but you don’t have social permission to introduce yourself,” he said. “It’s this weird bubble you exist in; you remove your personality from a situation and everyone is removing their personalities from these retail spaces. Anywhere in our entire society, people convert themselves into strangers; it’s all these strangers hanging out in this place together.”

Walker says a one-day trial isn’t enough time for a potential coworker to feel comfortable in the new space, and it takes closer to a week to merge with the undertones of the social atmosphere. In a society of people suspicious of others intentions, there is a real need to systematically construct trust. Trust construction, Walker calls it.

“We don’t have very many rules,” he said. “We’re lax on any kinds of guidelines we do have. That helps people feel more comfortable and feel more of a citizen rather than a customer.”

A 24-hour access membership runs $275 a month. You can also sign up for the basic membership at $25 a month to show up once a month for free and any other time you show up it will cost $15. The first day is free. You can also request a one-week free trial.

Actually, Walker envisions a system where some of us don’t have to work menial jobs that don’t use our special gifts.

“There’s this great quote by someone famous where he talks about how it’s so silly that we all have jobs now,” Walker said. “We could easily evolve as a society so not everyone needs to work. With technology scaling at the speed that it is, we can create money and generate income; we just need to learn how to share it. We should be living in a society to encourage society members to do what they’re passionate about. It’s funny we tell artists who are fantastic painters they need to work hourly wage jobs to pay rent because our society would benefit more from these artists creating beautiful things for everyone.”

We’re at a point in our techno-global revolution where these crazy ideas are tinged with feasibility.

“At the end of the day I think we’re going to evolve as a world where we don’t need to make money,” Walker said. But in the meanwhile, he’s working on bring coworking to corporations, those modern timeless money-machine factories that have been a staple of the American landscape since we seized it from the Native Americans. Wherever it is coworking is taking us, people are responding to it.

Remember When We Pretended Other People Didn’t Exist?

Walker thinks that in the future, we’re going to look back on this period of time and be like, ‘Remember when we pretended other people didn’t exist when we walked into coffee shops?’

“It’s ’cause no one has created a system in our society that has facilitated a way for people to interact with each other easily,” he said. “People are oftentimes afraid to interact with someone ’cause they don’t feel like it’s appropriate. They’re afraid of violating a social norm. The more and more I’ve kind of watched coworking grow and noticed it here, I’ve realized how unique it is to be able to walk into a physical retail space and at the end of the day actually know everyone’s name that is working there and feel permission to share with them your personality and receive their personality. I think that’s magical.”

Walker thinks the culture in the States has been driven to isolationism, and that coworking is a systematic cure to re-socialize society. “I’ll bet most coworking members don’t have high levels of stress,” Walker said. “Have you looked up stress in the workplace statistics? Maybe doctors should start prescribing coworking spaces to people. Stick it on Obamacare.”

Eva Dameron

This article was originally posted on Deskmag

The coffee break has been a staple of the workday since the early days of modern industry. Office spaces soon became ornamented with automatic coffee machines and afternoon coffee orders became a daily ritual.

Yet, these breaks were often limited, to ensure that workers weren’t spending too much time away for their desks.

Today the tables have turned. More traditional companies now realize that social concepts, like the communal workspace, actually boost employee productivity and coffee culture is a major part of this. Grabbing a latte is no longer just something workers do on their break, but rather a vital part of a productive workday.

Offices around the world are now jumping on this trend, rapidly moving away from placing emphasis on hours worked and focusing more on socializing in order to promote communication and collaboration.

Have a Cup of Corporate Coffee

International office design experts, Steelcase, recently published an article titled “Real Work”, where they explored companies that are currently integrating alternative spaces into their official workspaces. They highlighted the fact that being productive is no longer limited to the desk, but can also take place while grabbing a coffee with colleagues.

It is important to remember that these office cafés are not like the ones around the corner from your house, but actually considered to be another type of office. The creation of the workplace coffee shop is a result of blending “first place” and “third places” to create a “second place” that gives “employees access to environments that offer employees the relaxed amenities of home”.

The “Real Work” article made reference to several examples of alternative workspaces, including Google’s latest endeavor the Coffee Lab. The author paid a visit to Google’s latest addition to the London campus, describing it as a “neutral territory, perfect for meeting outside vendors or partners”.

Creating added value through First, Second and Third Spaces 

Betahaus, Berlin

Betahaus, which first opened in Berlin in 2009, and has since expanded to Barcelona, and Sofia, is a prime example of a contemporary collective office that has created added value through various qualities derived from alternative spaces.

By combining the “best aspects of a Vienna-style coffee house, the library, home office and university campus”, Betahaus offers their members a workspace that encourages both social interaction and productivity through architectural diversity and alternative workspace.

In fact, when you enter Betahaus Berlin, your first impression is their café. The multifaceted space that leads to the upper floors, where the official “coworking” is happening, is always buzzing with people talking, working on laptops and enjoying a freshly cooked meal. One gets the impression that just as much work is being done over a cup of coffee as it is over a computer in the quiet meeting rooms.

As the workplace changes, things that once seemed counter-intuitive, like working in a noisy coffee shop, are now being reconsidered in the professional landscape. Now more than ever we realize the importance of employee wellbeing as well as the benefit of developing alternative workspaces.

Amanda Gray

London based entrepreneur, angel investor and founder of eOffice, Pier Paolo Mucelli, is a pioneer of the collective workspace in Europe. Founded in early 2000, eOffice is a “modern workplace offering a sociable business setting for like-minded startups and entrepreneurs”.

eOffice has since expanded and can be found throughout many of London’s central locations, like Piccadilly, Soho, Fitzrovia, Holborn. The franchise is also responsible for managing a network of over 200 independent business centers and coworking spaces worldwide.

Hi Pier, as one of the pioneers of the social workplace, how would you define what’s important in a contemporary work environment?

Since we launched the first eOffice back in 2002, we have always adopted the open-plan office environment, where entrepreneurs work in close proximity to each other, offering more opportunities for people to meet and interact.

The concept of “coworking” has steadily, but surely, promoted this type of workplace, transforming it from a cool trend into a necessity for entrepreneurs and freelancers, looking for a flexible office solution, away from the solitude of working from home.

How is this representative a new model of work?

The essence of working alongside like-minded professionals is currently seen everywhere from coffee shops, hotel lounges and professional coworking spaces. Some of those spaces are even adopting the next phase in the trend, co-living. The emergence of We-Live and Common in the United States and Zoku in Europe (Amsterdam), have created a hybrid between the hospitality and workplace industries, by merging the aspects of business and leisure that are tailored to the needs of the startup sector.

Some of those spaces are even adopting the next phase in the trend, co-living.

Why is design essential for your space, and why is the look and feel of a workspace so important?

The design and feel of the workplace have become of vital importance to an employee’s satisfaction, focus, and drive. We can observe how large companies, such as Facebook, Google or LinkedIn have transformed traditional offices into a branded playground for work and interaction.

How did you personalize eOffice?

At eOffice, we have always put extra emphasis on the quality and durability of the furniture as well as the ergonomic advantages of the chairs. To achieve this, we have worked with a number of established suppliers within the office sector.

We brand our coworking centers with bright, inspirational colors, displaying plenty of artwork, designer pieces, as well as indoor plants. We are also partnering with GreenWill, following their green policy for a sustainable business center.

Your business model is focused on teaching your clients about contemporary business culture. How do you achieve this?

We provide clients with a flexible workplace environment and services, enabling them to grow their business and team. We also organize regular networking events as well as in conjunction with our business partners from the startup ecosystem. This combination offers our members the possibility to interact, exchange ideas and business contacts, as well as granting them the experience of the benefits of coworking for their own advantage. However, we do not interfere in our members’ activities, and we do not provide mentoring. If we have members who are not interested in networking they are not obliged to join with any of our organized events.

What types of clients join eOffice?

At eOffice we have a diversity of clients, ranging in size and professional background. We attract predominantly companies within the media and technology sector, but we have our doors open to all types of exciting startups and growing companies.

What types of services do you offer them?

Pier Paolo Mucelli

Along with office space on hourly or full-time basis, we also provide a list of different services tailored to the needs of startups such as our “Virtual Office”, “Company Formation”, “Meeting and Conference facilities”, and “Business Address”. We also have an international network of 200 independent coworking spaces worldwide, giving our members access and free day office space in any of the locations.

We also partner with a number of Funding Organizations offering our members access to their network of Angel Investors and VCs.

In your opinion, how has the development of these open spaces influenced the culture of work?

Open-plan spaces stimulate and encourage communication, interaction and cooperation between employees. All of this comes naturally, which creates a stronger, more collaborative team. It also makes senior managers and team leaders more approachable, which ultimately creates an efficient and more productive workflow. Overall, open-plan spaces provide many opportunities for impromptu meetings and discussions, paving the way for problem solving and creative thinking.

What does a social work environment offer that a traditional one does not?

The main advantage of the social work environment is the ability to interact with like-minded professions, creating a pool of opportunities, business ideas, and contacts. People prefer social work environments as they meet entrepreneurs from different industries and personal backgrounds, widening your professional network and commercial awareness.

It seems that some major corporations are steadily gravitating towards social workplaces, why do you think that is?

Google was one of the first fast growing businesses to shout about the importance of the innovative, open-plan workspace. Companies like UBER, Twitter and Facebook followed in their footsteps.

This transition is also in close relation to Millennials joining the workforces, which will be around 75% of the world’s workforce by 2025. The Millennial mindset cherishes collaboration, flexibility and autonomy, thus these are key features companies must take into consideration when they are re-designing their office. Social workplaces provide connectivity, flexible desks with plenty of breakout areas and rooms to rest, refresh and even play, which significantly increase the employee satisfaction. These features also promote attachment to the company brand while simultaneously cutting out unnecessary desk space complying with the mobile nature of today’s work.

What are some of the challenges of creating a productive workplace for those who might be more used to traditional offices/methods of work?

If you offer open-plan workplace environment you need to balance it with enough meeting rooms and phone booths where members can have privacy. Movable partitions and dividers allow people who are used to a more traditional office environment to quickly adapt to the perks of having your dedicated office space within a bigger workplace. A spacious communal area will also allow members to willingly interact and alternatively have a time on their own.

What are some of the major changes the workplace has undergone over the last 5 years? How does eOffice address these changes?

There are changes derived from both technological advances and accelerating urban social trends. From the technological angle, we have noticed an increase in the use of laptops, wireless connectivity, and VOIP services. This has allowed the workplaces to be more flexible and users to sit and work in the different areas workspace.

At the same time, there has been a renaissance of city living, with more and more young professionals and small families choosing to live in urban centers, rather than rural locations. A large part of this is because these individuals require a central location to work and meet colleagues on flexible basis.

At eOffice we are centrally located and able to take advantage of these trends directly in London and via local partners in the main world cities.

Amanda Gray

Workbar is a network of communal workspaces based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusets (USA), with an extensive network throughout the State. Like many social workspaces, Workbar is home to the growing number of independent workers, as well as remote workers from larger companies, who are looking for a community where they can be productive and supported. Devin Cole, director of business development at Workbar, spoke with us about the value of open workspaces, for both workers and property owners. 

Hi Devin, Can you give us a little bit of the history behind WorkBar?

Workbar has a similar story to a lot of shared workspaces. It was a combination of a little bit of serendipity and an interesting moment in the real estate market.

Workbar’s founder, Bill Jacobson, was working with 3 other people in an early stage startup based in a friend’s office who had some extra space. Yet the company that was mainly occupying that office went out of business and Jacobson and his coworkers were alone in a 5,000sq. (470 m2) building. They liked the space and the neighborhood but obviously couldn’t pay the whole rent. So they went to the landlord, explained the situation and also proposed that they would invite more people in order to cover the costs. The landlord agreed to help out and give them a chance.

How long did it take to attract new members?

They filled up pretty quickly, and those new members also brought a lot of other people with them. The landlord saw this flexible model work effectively, which was great for them since the real estate market in 2009 was really tough. One of the most positive things about this was that Workbar’s success inspired the landlord to invest in the space, which also allowed us expand.

How did you realize what type space design nurtured productivity?

We don’t have a lot of closed spaces, so people can’t just close a door for privacy. In order to meet member’s needs, we have created 4 different “neighborhoods”. Each neighborhood is a room housing about 30 to 55 people, and each one has its own function and feel. There is a quiet space, a routine workspace, a café, and a place to talk and make phone calls. As soon as you walk in the door you can find the space that works with what you need to do that day.

Do you think open workspaces are important for creating a professional community? 

One of the things that we talk about a lot is how we are using open and flexible workspace as a way to buttress community. There are many attractive offices and coworking spaces, but their workers are essentially just sharing conference room and kitchens, rather than using the space to connect. At Workbar, we are focused on open space as a facilitator of our community.

How does the open and social workplace meet the needs of the contemporary worker?

Devin Cole

As people get more choice, they will choose places that are more convenient for them. They will most likely go to workplaces that are closer to their home, and they will also choose places that allow them to be with other people. Technology has really allowed people to break things into small pieces, especially with sharing services, like car sharing, which are more convenient and affordable. Today, with all these various options, people no longer have to rely on a single company or product to get what they need.

I suppose this could work with buildings as well…

A friend of mine pointed out that in high-rent districts, places like communal workspaces spaces could afford the rents through members and smaller companies. This gives the space members access to thriving areas that would normally be off-limits since they tend to be a bit pricier. So if a startup can’t afford to rent a space in this type of district that would offer contacts and a creative environment on their own, they can piggyback on the lease of a bigger flexible workspace.

Why do you think so many professionals have decided to become independent in recent years?

In general, the labor market has gotten a lot more independent. There are fewer full-time jobs that offer benefits and companies are now looking for ways to focus more on project-based work. As a result, we are seeing many established and professional people who realize that they could do better financially if they became independent. Many of those workers were somewhat forced into this situation, but no matter the way, going off on your own seems to be increasingly desirable.

Do you this more traditional companies could adopt the independent work style?

Well, it seems that a big company might see an open work model and think, “oh people like open space” but they lack the understanding of what their workers need and how to create space around those needs. For example, they wouldn’t identify separate spaces to suit specific needs and in the end the open workspace concept would seem like a failure.

What kinds of members usually join Workbar and what services do you offer them?

We have three different types of workers in our space. We house startups, independents and also employees from corporate companies that can work remotely. For example, we have 5 members from WordPress at our space.

The Boston chamber of commerce also has a group membership with us, so if they want to have a meeting in a different space they can come to Workbar. We have also partnered with some other companies like DCU credit agency, Mullen, and IHI, and they also have access to both Workbar locations and other offsite space.

Do you think that social workplaces will influence real estate culture like they have the way we work?

If done correctly, these open workplaces can be really good for a building. If a space is well-structured, well-designed and focused, it can bring a lot of added value to the community and property owners. For example, you can’t just throw in some desks and call it a shared workspace, but if you pay close attention to the design and nurture an active community, the open workspace gives landlords an active storefront. The community displays their property in a good light and keeps attracting new creative and professional people, which could lead to new leases and new tenants.

Amanda Gray 

Eduardo Forte completed his studies in Law and business management, while simultaneously developing his skills in marketing and management. He is the co-founder of Betahaus Barcelona, an open space that offers passionate professionals the opportunity to develop themselves in a creative and inspirational atmosphere. Eduardo will be speaking at this year’s Social Workplace conference, and gave us a glimpse into what it’s like to run a space catered to the “new coworking class”.

How does Betahaus Barcelona define the social workplace?

For us, it is a place where people can have access to an inspirational atmosphere filled with individuals from various backgrounds. For example, Betahaus currently has 200 members from 40 nationalities. This diverse community not only allows people to expand their business contacts but also gives them the chance to share and find others that are also passionate about what they do.

For us, to have “big numbers” (big community) means that we can increase that chance. You could meet someone that might be your next partner, client, friend, crush or love of your life.

What types of members chose to work at Betahaus Barcelona?

We are a big space in terms of members (+200), thus we have many profiles. Overall we attract international and open-minded people that have chosen Barcelona due to their lifestyle. Our members range from creative professionals (designers, illustrator, etc) to entrepreneurs and startups. We also have an in-house workshop, so we attract many makers and product designers that want to build their own prototypes.

Betahaus Barcelona is pretty focused on design. Why are the look and feel of a workspace so important?

Eduardo Forte

We worked really hard to design our space that provides the best working experience possible for our members. One of my co-founders, Pedro Pineda, is a designer and he is also in charge of developing and improving the concept of the experience you will get when you become a member of Betahaus.

The design is not only about having a nice and comfortable chair, or hip meeting room. It’s primarily about developing something that is useful and shaped for the user. Overall, the design aims to improve your working experience in general.

How have open workspaces influenced the culture of work

I think these social spaces opened up more possibilities for workers because they offer members the chance to meet other profiles that they wouldn’t typically encounter in a traditional office.

In a coworking space, you’re in touch with people that don’t necessarily share your skill-set, thus you have the chance to open your network and develop a much broader vision of your own work, and that definitely changes (in a good way) the way you will work in the future.

Do you think that larger companies are now looking to join open workplaces?

I think that’s not 100% true. I think that small to medium-sized companies are much more open to social workplaces. It’s very complicated for corporations to change the way they work because they’re big and less flexible. Also, large companies are a community within itself, so the question is: How you put a community inside another community? It wouldn’t really work. But what we will start to see is larger companies and corporations will we send small teams to social workspaces to gain inspiration, or understanding about what is happening in the startup and freelance ecosystem.

What are the challenges of creating a productive workplace for freelancers?

There are many challenges! But I think the biggest challenge is how to create a mixed environment where everybody feels comfortable and can adapt to their workflow. When you are dealing with different profiles, the various work styles don’t necessarily fit together, so you need to find the way to make them come together. That’s the biggest challenge.

The Social Workplace to become the next mainstream office environment

DTZ UK, via the Financial Times, recently disclosed a survey which stated that 816 coworking spaces are active in the city of London today. If the definition of coworking withheld by the real estate consulting firm in fact did embrace the wide scope of flexible workspaces (including business centers) the figure then confirms that traditional offices and businesses are now leaning heavily towards innovative and social work environments.

Spacious, New York

The trend is gaining traction in a growing number of cities. According to the CoStar’s ranking, in the 1st half of 2015, coworking champion, WeWork, was the number 1 deal taker in the New York City’s real estate market.

In the Big Apple alone, WeWork now operates more than 549.000 square feet (51.000 m2) of space, spread across 15 locations, which is part of a network of 49 spaces.

But the story is not only about WeWork.

In the last 12 months, the coworking scene, on the whole, raised close to 1 billion US$.

A brand new, growing industry

Today the story that is being written is focused on a new and growing industry, which is beginning to shake up the traditional office market. Today’s businesses are reimagining the role, function, and spirit of the 21st-century workplace.

The culture of work is changing and so is the physical workplace, as it is preparing to embrace a future that will be social, open, comprised of peer to peer networks, as well as convenient and human driven.

This current shift implies a new understanding of workplace tenants’ untold expectations. Today, there are more than 6.000 coworking spaces operating around the world. These spaces range from big to small, financially self-supported incubators, business centers, and even universities. It has become common knowledge that by identifying a position and nurturing a community, these spaces will manage to sustain a successful platform for future workers.

The Social Workplace, whether it is comprised of hot-desking, open spaces, lounges or private offices, is thought to better enable human interactions and a sense of belonging.

Inspiring design and facilitation 

It comes as no surprise that after one decade of coworking, social connections, open access, sense of belonging and like-mindedness, do indeed matter. Because of this understanding, these practices can be implemented on a bigger scale, either by newcomers or by existing coworking space operators who have managed to grow over the years.

Important players within the movement are now entering the era of the Social Workplace, where the whole facility and workspace environment, whether it is made out of open space hot-desking, fixed desk renting, lounges or private offices, is thought to better enable social interactions and on-demand services.

As a result, physical spaces that are home to these communities have become micro-ecosystems, based on the tenants’ personal values and modern work styles. This value proposition adds to the direct economic advantages of operating activities from a shared workspace, namely flexibility and lower costs, allowed by the mutualization of some facilities. Successful social workplaces speak as much to the users’ heart and emotions as they do to their brain and wallet.

Successful social workplaces speak as much to the users’ heart and emotions as they do to their brain and wallet. 

Spaces.

An opportunity generator for independent workers and businesses

As the workforce becomes more independent and digitally distributed, new needs emerge, which have created the ability to multiply business opportunities. This new style of work breaks isolation and supports a dynamic and positive community of peers that can team up rapidly for short-term projects while also giving them the chance to discover complementary skills. It is important to remember that modern workers want to move away from a purely functional work environment.

The shift we are currently witnessing is all about a new work style and values. A greater openness for social interactions also means more informality and innovative ways to approach social engagement, as we often see online.

This alchemy within the Social Workplace can occur through the concourse of two main ingredients:

• A well thought out space design and layout, which is reflective of the contemporary values of the tenant community. This space plays an important role in fostering informality, engineered in such a way that it can offer a balance between quiet productive areas, private, meeting and social/convivial zones, which can ensure socializing and fluid space. Some social workplaces aim to look like a personal living space. Others stress the sleek and cool aesthetic focused on technology while some prioritize creativity. It is vital that the look and feel of the workspace will be inspiring and that the layout is efficient and based on “social ambition”.
• Personal facilitation and hospitality. The added value of flexible space owners isn’t just about the provision of functional services to tenants. Today, many spaces can be operated from an individual laptop, but added value must also be focused on care and intention, community building, networking and content through the regular hosting of events.

It goes without saying that undertaking such new endeavors requires the social workplace owner to embrace new skill sets as well as the appropriate culture that goes with it.

Pure player coworking spaces have been putting these principles in place since the beginning

Social workplaces operate on a bigger scale, and often in much larger spaces. They tend to mix coworking and private offices, as well as meeting and event rooms. There is often a coffee shop, sometimes a restaurant (offering catering services) plus additional programs (training, coaching, business acceleration, for instance). And, of course, community facilitation.

Various international players have also successfully implemented this model. Let’s mention The Office Group (UK), Spaces (The Netherlands) or, again, WeWork (US) to name a few. The coworking pioneer Betahaus is also an inspiration to the growing community of Social Workplaces. Betahaus Berlin HQ now occupies an entire building from which they initially started as a small to mid-sized coworking space. It has a fully equipped cafe on the ground floor, coworking and dedicated desks, in additional to a Maker Lab, training course, and in-house startup support.

The Office Group

WeWork

Betahaus

The road towards work villages?

If these social principles can take over a whole building, the next step might be to outline a whole neighborhood according to the same value system.

This is the philosophy behind the Urban Escape project in Stockholm. In this case, the Social Workplace isn’t just a building but a whole city block. Coworking, network and event offerings are at the core of this project, just as it is within a growing number of urban development projects around the world.

Woodstock Exchange, Cape Town (South Africa)

Bespoke, San Francisco

Another prime example of this model is the Woodstock Exchange, based in Cape Town (South Africa). The real estate development platform has integrated restaurants, coffee shops and craft stores into the mix. The rest of the compound hosts flexible offices and coworking spaces for freelancers, startups, and agencies from the creative and digital industries.

These Social Workplaces are also moving into our daily lives. Bespoke, based in San Francisco (US), is set up in the center of a shopping mall, blurring more and more the boundaries between work and our private lives.

The lines become even more blurred as coworking is now offering more diverse services, such as sports centers and accommodation. Spacious project in New York City (see picture upside) is an aggregation of a hotel and open coworking space. Before, there were other innovative platforms that were established within the collaborative economy (co-living, shared cars, on-demand services, etc.) that are now becoming a part of these developing social workplaces.

Jean-Yves Huwart
Social Workplace Conference

Subscribe to our Newsletter by clicking HERE.

Register to the Social Workplace Conference :

The Social Workplace Conference (London, October 16th 2015) is a unique opportunity to understand the innovation taking place within flexible workspaces that are rapidly transforming the real estate landscape. The conference explores various work landscapes and their relationship with coworking for the 1st time ever. The event will be discussion based, aimed at promoting the coworking movement’s success at integrating the human experience within the modern workplace.

Since 2008, Blankspaces has been cultivating the shared workspace scene in Los Angeles. The brand has several locations, with two in L.A and one in Santa Monica, each offering freelancers and entrepreneurs shared office space, which can be rented out long-term or on a flexible basis. We spoke with Blankspace’s founder, Jerome Chang, about the development of the social workplace and how today’s office is encouraging frequent employee interactions.

Hi Jerome. How would you define the social workplace today? And how is it representative of the new model of work? 

The current open office environment includes workspaces without full-height walls, rather than offices with cubicles, which are more traditional, albeit often poor, examples. The social workplace is designed to encourage frequent interactions. Hotel lobbies with work-like areas are good examples of this.

Please describe the design of Blankspaces, and tell us a bit about why the look and feel of a workspace is so important.

At Blankspaces, I include a variety of workspaces, from small intimate areas, to large open areas, and everything in between. This helps develop physical spatial relationships that shape cultural interactions. For coworking, it’s also important to remember that our physical space is what generates revenue, so efficiency is vital.

Blankspaces, Santa Monica

 How did you realize what type of space design nurtured productivity?

All types of spaces can nurture productivity. Once you use all of your design tools, including details like the way someone sits, away or toward others, you can make any space productive.

What kinds of members usually join Blankspaces (more freelance or corporate) and what services do you offer them?

Any and all. We tend to attract and retain members who value a “real office” and one that has a productive vibe. This does not necessarily mean it’s quiet, or noisy.

In your opinion, how has the development of these open spaces influenced the culture of work?

Privacy can be segmented into many levels and perceived differently by everyone. Questioning how much privacy someone needs to work productively, is critical.

What does a social work environment offer that a traditional one does not?

A social workplace develops and expands the definition of work, including networking.

Blankspace’s founder, Jerome Chang

It seems that many larger companies/corporations are steadily gravitating towards social workplaces, why do you think that is?

They are starting to see that interactions amongst others have been undervalued in the past.

How are the expectations of the modern workforce different from previous models?

Technology can finally untether workers allowing them to be productive anywhere, so they now work all the time. Oops.

What has changed in the last 5 years? What are the current expectations? How do you address these modern needs?

A workspace doesn’t necessarily need to provide space for a keyboard, a CPU, or even file storage. So workspaces can be much smaller. Dedicated workspaces may not even be required because people change workspaces throughout the day. Therefore, workspaces have to be designed with a variety of areas in mind.

Vasakronan is easily the biggest property owner in Sweden. With approximately 10 billion Euros worth in properties, which are primarily rented out as office space or shopping centers, the real estate giant is home to the majority of companies in the country. Yet, rather than conjuring up an image of bleak cubicles rented out to just anyone, Henrik Eriksson, head of workplace strategies and tenant advisory, is very well aware of the importance of design and flexibility when it comes to meeting workers needs.

As the population of digital nomads increases and the traditional office is undergoing a significant transformation, Eriksson is looking for ways to create spaces where the CEO of a company and a freelancer can work side by side with the feeling that both their needs are perfectly met.

Hi Henrik. As a major player in the property business, how do you see the relationship between a traditional office space and the “social workplace”?

I believe that the more traditional corporations or businesses are starting to see that the future of business is no longer how they once understood it to be. They realize that there is important knowledge and rich pools of resources available in open-source workspaces where people communicate easily, and even collaborate if they want.

Vasakronan

When I attended the Coworking Europe Conference in Lisbon last year, I really saw a divide between those who were working from the heart and those individuals that saw coworking as a business opportunity. Neither approach is wrong, but I think that both models are naturally drifting towards one another and they need to find a way to work together.

How does Vasakronan play a role in the development of Social Workplaces?

We would definitely like to be a thought leader. As the largest landlord in Sweden, our properties are focused on space where people flow, such as office spaces and shopping centers. Where people flow revenue can be made, if it’s done well.

The role of the landlord can be very important, and we know that coworking spaces face difficulties with that, especially when it comes to paying rent. If you do it right implementing a social environment into the workplace can increase flow, productivity and revenue.

Do you see yourself more as a facility, a service, or a hospitality provider?

We are definitely a facility. We are a landlord that provides office space that is functional and flexible.

What kind of tenants do you typically have in your workspaces?

I would say that we have around 80 percent companies and 20 percent freelance tenants. There are people who are looking to lease property in the best location to start a franchise, and also those who are working on projects, which focus on community and sustainability.

As a landlord, have you observed changes in the way people want to work?

Overall we can see that not only businesses are becoming more agile, by encouraging their workers to work in more non-traditional spaces, but also that society on the whole is becoming more agile. In Sweden we just at the beginning of this transformation, but I am sure we will see more of these areas hosting digital nomads.

To what extent is Vasakronan different from any traditional office environment and how does design play into that?

We are very different in the ways in which we think about space, which absolutely plays a big role. I am a firm believer that stimuli in the physical environment can result in positive cognitive changes.

Headquarters of Vasakronan, Sweden

There needs to be space for socializing, relaxing and also productivity. There are some companies that make money by fitting out an ideal working environment, but at Vasakronan we do not like to base our design on current behaviors because they change so much over time within a space. We like to see what works, and then adapt to their needs over time using the space.

What kinds of changes have you seen from workers?

We have seen workers using space in ways we didn’t predict. We may have thought, “okay, this is a sitting/relaxation area”, but people are actually much more active and social in this space. At Vasakronan we apply design thinking, which follows the line of: make a prototype, see what works, who reacts how and to what, and take it from there.

We make a lot of changes to space using furniture. That is a lot more coast effective, rather than moving walls, for example.

Are freelancers an important client for you? What are the challenges of creating a productive workplace for workers today?

In an increasingly digital and knowledgeable society, yes, freelancers become more and more important.

When I think about the challenges of creating a productive and attractive workplace, I think about nightclubs. In Stockholm we have 2 or 3 nightclubs, which are still in their original state since the 1980s, but the rest have completely changed or closed down. It is hard to maintain same concept overtime and keep people interested. For me, it is the same with business.

Can you please explain?

For example, the manager of a club must be aware of what people want, subsequently providing relevant content, while also making it accessible and interesting. New and growing businesses must also do the same. For example, we see that the event market is becoming more explicit. Gong to a conference used to be a break from work, but now people really have the urge for serendipity, and simultaneously realize that they can capitalize on these events.

We are moving out of a time where people do things simply for monetary gain, but who also realize the importance of social capital.