Officeless. And what’s a co-working space anyway?
I have just returned home after returning the keys to the manager of the office I occupied in Clerkenwell for all of last year.
It was in a very charming former clock factory, now called Clerkenwell Workshops. It was full of charming little companies, from television production studios, to the HQ of a betting website, with a sprinkle of graphic design studios in there for good measure. There was plenty of exposed brickwork, and wooden floors. The Clerkenwell Kitchen (which is needless to say, charming) was situated there: a place that – to Alex Nelson’s surprise – only served organic cola (I had no idea there was such a thing).
All very nice. But recently I decided to let the lease lapse, and end my tenancy. Here’s why:
When I started the lease on the office in December 2010, I had an awful lot of projects on the go. Suddenly I felt I was struggling to cope without needing to hire some designers and developers full time, and as such I needed a space to call my own. The studio was small-ish – about 270sq/ft – but could fit about 5 people comfortably: a perfect place to grow into slowly.
But as the weeks and months progressed, my ability to juggle projects and get work done helped by awesome – remote – freelancers increased. As suddenly as I thought I needed a physical space for the studio, I dreaded the idea of hiring, bringing with it the pressure of responsibility, National Insurance contributions, and keeping track of sick days.
The idea of running a traditional studio was now as appealing as my various, old roles in corporate-dom. I’d lose the time I had to learn and develop, and to keep my hand in all the projects I execute. I’d have to take on projects I didn’t find interesting to maintain overhead (and I should say, keeping a studio in Clerkenwell isn’t cheap…).
So clearly the best course of action was to share the space with the awesome people I have been lucky to work with. Rik Lomas, Al Monk, Gemma Leigh, Severin Furneaux and Lawrence Brown all worked from the studio at various points during the year.
Co-working Spaces
Whilst sharing the space was fun, fundamentally the space wasn’t designed to be – and could never be – “a co-working space”. But with that term thrown around so often it’s often tricky to pin down what it means.
The mighty Studiomates in DUMBO is what I consider a co-working space. Everything else that markets itself as a co-working space, don’t come close.
Studiomates is a community led by Tina and her gang of fun, inclusive, cross-discipline creatives and do-ers. It is the too-ing and fro-ing of interesting people doing interesting things that makes the place so exciting. The space itself (as enormous and cool as it is) becomes relegated and invisible.
It’s this community that is missing from the self-styled co-working spaces that have popped up in New York and London over recent years. With some notable exceptions (New Work City, for instance), the community – or even simply, the “feeling” – is missing. A sea of reproduction Eames furniture and carefully designed desks doesn’t make a successful co-working venue; it’s the community that uses and underpins the space.
I’m not dismissing the usefulness of such places. After moving from my office I signed up with the excellent Club Workspace (in the basement of Clerkenwell Workshops), but I see it more as a drop-in center where I can use the wifi and drink as much of the free coffee as my nerves can handle. Sadly, the furtive whispers of the huddled people in each corner of the space isn’t enough for me to spend all my day there.
So let’s create a co-working space!
Actually, no, let’s not.
I’ve learnt that co-working spaces are organic things that can’t be started like an engine. The conditions under which a successful co-working space can thrive have to be right. The balance of people, projects, want and will all have to be tended first. That’s what Tina has worked on for years.
Further, the economics of setting such a space in London can be tricky. Recently, Ben Stott and I briefly looked at some numbers. A Central-ish location in London can be staggeringly expensive, and that’s before the Vitsœ shelving installation is taken into account. Without guaranteed sublets, the investment required suddenly looks a touch vertiginous.
So with that said – and while day-dreaming of the perfect collaborative space in which sees stuff happening – I’m looking forward to gate-crash various spaces, studios, and offices over the next few months. Hopefully along the way I’ll meet and work with the people who’ll one day help make it happen.
Comments — 12
Great post and very true. Maybe remote working and collaboration tools are the future and coffee shops and arts venues the new co-working offices on the go ? Will check out the spaces you mention.
Hi Dan,
Completely agree that the space, while necessary, isn’t sufficient to make a good working environment. I’ve worked at Industry in London and now at BizDojo in Auckland and have found them excellent.
In both locations they take great care to select residents that have complimentary skills and styles of work. They’ve also got all permanent residents or only a few hot desks. The combination of those two factors has led to an emergence of community at Industry. At BizDojo they are far more active in what they call “curated serendipity”, a wanky name for introducing tenants to one another and suggesting collaborations.
As a product company we find it really useful to be surrounded by a range of client services workers in tangential industries and have employed the talents of a handful of our co-workers at various times.
I think any place I’d want to work in future would have to tick both the permanent residents and the careful selection boxes.
Cheers,
Tim
I keep toying with the idea of getting a desk in a fixed location. I took out membership with Club Workspace, and then canned it because I wasn’t using it enough. My months vary so much from all on-site with clients to hardly ever, and mostly working from home, that its hard to settle on a single solution. And this month, my house is being extended, so i don’t even have a spare room to work from. I’m currently sitting on a spare desk in TBWA\ because a friend said it was going free. Yesterday I was with clients. The day before at a friend’s agency. I’m homeless, but with great friends and clients who help out and don’t mind me being around. What I really need (so I don’t run out of favours) is a way of codifying that its okay to work in various spaces, and an idea of where a desk might be free, and the ‘tone’ of that space (expected to be social vs. headphones on is okay). I think its a membership card, and a network of many many people saying “we have a desk free today” via a central hub of some sort. (oh post cut short, there’s a fire alarm in this random office.. brb)
Back! I moved across the other side of London. In another friend’s office. The membership card would basically be a committment to the ethos/rules/attitude of the thing, and you’d be rated on how good a squatter you were. It’s what I’d planned on doing with freedesking.org but life got in the way.
For me, co-working spaces are very difficult to pull off unless you have a very strict level of control over who you let in there. The more people in a co-working space, the more likely it is that it won’t work and the less chance of collaboration and idea-sharing (the number one benefit of co-working).
Having had a desk in Industry Workspaces and having a client in Club Workspace, both of these places just don’t work. No one talks to each other or shares ideas. They’re essentially shelters for business-tramps who want free coffee and a warm room.
As an ex-sharer of Dan’s studio space for 11 out of 13 months, I always felt that it worked quite well having several people in the studio that we liked and got on with. Without sounding like a cliché, it gives you people to bounce ideas off when you’re down the pub. Even now, in our new shared studio of 8 people, there’s still that level of control which means every studio-mate gets on and there isn’t a weak inter-personal link that means the whole thing doesn’t falls apart and turning the space into a silent library where everyone goes home at 6pm. I enjoy staying late if other people are staying late too. This is why Studiomates in NY works well despite having a lot of members – it’s heavily curated.
For me, the idea of being office-less is the same as sleeping on your friends floors. It’s a shallow experience of feeling like you’re imposing yourself on other people until you get your own little patch of desk to put your laptop on. I do feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t have an awesome full-time studio to work at.
@Rik Lomas, where were you at Industry? I think people sorta vanish off the map when they head upstairs but downstairs (largely thanks to the tenants themselves) there is a pretty good vibe.
We at WIL have put on a couple of drinks nights, Henry organised a Christmas party, there is hacky sack when the weather is good. There’s a continuous discussion about business. As I say, most (all?) of it is tenant but there have been very few tenants that don’t fit and they usually leave pretty quickly.
Tim, I was there about two years ago, I didn’t enjoy it because it was so quiet every day, I was downstairs and left after around a month or so. There were days where no one spoke to me at all. Yes, I know it’s reciprocal, but it was happening throughout the office, what’s the point I thought as I can sit at home on my own, not be talked to and save a few hundred quid a month!
Rik, man that sucks and I completely agree that I wouldn’t want to be in the place you were describing either.
Downstairs, at least, it’s a lot more friendly these days but, yeah, no thanks to the space management. I think that Henry has been largely responsible for fostering the emergent community.
Some friends of mine are currently launching a creative co-working space in Leeds (as nice as Clerkenwell with a quarter of the rent ;-) and it’s very interesting watching it grow: http://www.duke-studios.com/
They’re still setting it up, but despite the place being very much a work-in-progress they’ve had a few groups of tenants already move in. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s a slight ‘all in it together’ feeling about getting the place set up, maybe it’s the free laser cutter and workshop you can use, or maybe it’s because they’ve chosen a mixture of disciplines of makers and marketers (digital and not) as tenants, or maybe we’re just chattier Up North, but the vibe there is great.
People chat, have a beer in the evening, and have already started collaborating. They’ve gone to great efforts to make being there as enjoyable as possible (see the Not Bored Room - amazing space full of fun curiosities alongside practical meeting facilities) which makes a massive diference and really helps people feel like they’re part of something a bit special.
They’ve spent their money on quirky cardboard office pods and vinyl cutting machines rather than Vitsoe shelving and Plumen bulbs (sorry Dan!) which makes it feel like a place where people come to do and make stuff.
Time will tell how it’ll work long term with more tenants move in…
Ps. Organic cola tastes pretty rubbish.
Wow - apologies for the giant winky face!!
Good article Dan,
My two pence.
I think the main reason they do / don’t work is location. If I was London based (or any major city for that fact) I would probably entertain the idea of one day a week. Full time office share / co-working is pretty pointless if you run your own company and are looking for work / working daily. Too many distractions.
Bouncing ideas is fun - but having the conviction in your own work is more important - I think working by yourself really pushes your creative output.
Also age is a factor. If i had this opportunity when I started out I would have jumped at it - but as time progress - working for yourself in your own office has more benefits.
Obviously this works for me but for a lot of folks I can see the appeal.
The other reason it wouldn’t work here is the only other designer i know is 65miles away :).
What an interesting discussion stream. Thanks all! And thanks to Dan for the great article. As a hub operator in Middle England, users views are priceless. After 5 years of slogging in this market I had to chuckle at Rik’s ‘business tramp’. Expensive and painful experience and the pursuit of plenty of unreal idealistic goals has now resulted in our space being a combination of what you all describe; a managed mix of business owners (selected) permanent and passing through with much, much care and attention to our community’s needs and wants. Next one we’re opening has a ‘StartUpZone’ in the midst for young people - and we’re hoping that the company of skilled, nomadic independent operators will help our fledgling newly self employed ‘make their own jobs’. See the idealism wasn’t completely drained out of us!