thanks for this Dave - its very interesting reading. I have been suggesting that the corporate office space needs to change for the last couple of years - in response to both economic and social imperatives, and that homeworking, coworking, and teleworking offers solutions to do this - see my blog post about this trend here : http://cultivar.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/design-thinking-architecture-and-interior-design/
Interestingly, I used IDEO's workspace as an example of this trend, and my most recent research has revealed that most coworking spaces are evolving in this model. In growing membership of our coworking space ( http://www.moseleyexchange.com ) I suggested offering space to larger companies who would value having a "hub" location for some of their employees - we already have a few members like this - a university uses our location as an off- campus drop-in space for some of its staff who live closer to where we are located, and a couple of guys who work for organisations across the UK use our space as their "home" location. This idea has financial benefits, networking benefits for members seeking contact with larger companies (potential clients), but it caused some concern about changing the culture of collaboration and type of person working here i.e. corporate types Vs creative types. Your report made me think that there are opportunities for in-company coworking spaces. Big corporates are notorious for their "Silo" cultures and lack of inter-departmental collaboration, and my experience of working in several big US corporates led me to believe that everyone was born to live in a 10x10 cubicle with 6' walls around.... not very inspiring! I'm also working on plans for coworking spaces that appeal to the increasing number of older people who are retired but don't necessarily want to stay at home watching daytime TV all day. This is a growing community who's needs and culture may be different from existing coworkers, but I believe the coworking space model would appeal to them. Finally, its interesting to see Steelcase interested in the coworking trend, because I have been interested in seeking collaboration with some of the larger European interior design firms and office furniture manufacturers myself, but there seems to be inherent tensions for them in the coworking movement. Cost of high quality furniture seems to be an issue for start-ups, and the current economic situation makes availability of re-cycled furniture easy to come by (is re-cycled also more environmentally friendly too?). The bigger and more resourceful companies also seem to target big corporations rather than small offices for obvious reasons. There also seems to be design issues around offering a mix of types of furniture to provide choice and inspiration, rather than a corporate office feel. Hope this stuff was useful for others on here... James Rock On Feb 23, 2:17 pm, David Troy <[email protected]> wrote: > Back in November about twelve folks from Baltimore involved in space design > were flown out to Grand Rapids to visit Steelcase's corporate headquarters on > their corporate jet. Needless to say it was an awesome day trip. > > There were a few take-aways I've been finding myself referring to often > enough that I thought they were worth sharing here: > > 1. Corporations are downsizing their spaces and preparing for Gen Y's > willingness to work more flexibly and collaboratively. GE's global standard > for space-per-worker is now 70 sqft. Accenture's is 50 sqft. This doesn't > mean each person gets a phone booth; it means they're not providing space for > all their employees anymore. They expect people to be working from home, > shared facilities, coffee shops, airports, and client sites. > > 2. Coworking spaces are a lot like restaurants, and you probably don't want > Mexican or Italian every day. They think a major city should be able to > support 12/25/50 coworking spaces over time, and that you'll make your > decision about which one(s) to go to on a daily basis around the design of > the space. By "design" I am talking about "design constraints," not just > layout and furniture. Who's attracted to the space? Is it coders or fine > artists? Which group do you need to be inspired by / move with that day? This > turns the "space competition" question into a moot point. We don't think > about a Thai place being in competition with a taco joint. In the same way, > we should be preparing our cities to handle multiple coworking facilities and > welcoming new entrants and multiple experiments. > > Other tidbits of interest: > > a) Steelcase owns IDEO, the creative consulting / "design thinking" firm. > > b) Steelcase's more whimsical/coworking-targeted brand is Turnstone, which > has been referenced here. Turnstone is very interested in supporting > coworking. > > c) They have a "wormhole" video link between Grand Rapids and IDEO's office > in Palo Alto. We've been talking about doing this between some coworking > spaces but haven't quite gotten it going yet. > > Thought y'all would appreciate these ideas. > > Best, > Dave > > -- > Dave Troy > Beehive Baltimore > Community Coworking in Baltimore, Maryland -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
