IIDA Perspective - Spring/Summer 2013 - 29

The hazards of working from home are well documented,
and they’re not just the temptation to stay in your pajamas
and watch too much daytime TV. The monotony of laboring
alone—coupled with the lack of professionalism, structure,
and community that result from working in one’s residence—
can challenge even the most motivated among us. And bustling
coffee houses, where distractions abound, are not always
the most optimal alternative. Enter coworking, the savior
of freelancers, start-ups, job-seekers, and telecommuters alike.
A buzzword it may be, but coworking is certainly no flash-inthe-pan fad: The industry has grown 200 percent annually for
the past seven years, according to its leading bulletin, Deskmag.
by

Georgina
McWhirter

The rapid ascent indicates serious changes in the global
work-scape. The self-employed already account for
nearly a third of the U.S. workforce—the largest percentage ever, according to Freelancers Union—while
Mavenlink data indicates the overall contingent
workforce is expected to grow to 40 percent by 2020.
Coworking has become a bona fide phenomenon,
fueled by mobile technology that allows us to work
any time, anywhere, and by the postrecessionary
climate; permanent roles continue to be reduced, yet
contract work is on the rise.
Coworking’s benefits are manifold, and not just
in terms of material infrastructure (shared Wi-Fi,
printers, reception and conference rooms, etc.) and
the chance to avoid long-term leases and hefty rents.
Coworkers report increased self-confidence, creativity,
productivity—and better health. Personal and
business growth opportunities, cross-disciplinary
knowledge sharing and ideation, and the chance
to network and foster peer relationships are also
draws. In this way, coworking spaces are typically
more than just a physical office; they offer a blend of
incubation, collaboration, business and investment
resources, mentoring, and, above all, community.
Such facilities have come a long way since the term
was coined in 2005.
The movement has wider social impact, too. In
Australia, for example, coworking is seen as a way to
support local communities and create value across
all sectors; last March, industry players instigated
talks to create the world’s first national coworking
association. And this occurred just days after the Australian government announced a $1 million grant to
create a coworking space in Adelaide as a measure to
address worker retention and promote innovation
in the region. Stateside and at a more grassroots level,

the coworking community in New York showed its
muscle in the wake of natural disaster when the
Web site SandyCoworking—a crowd-sourced map—
helped many without power find a place to work after
Hurricane Sandy hit.
But coworking is not just a modality for the
contingent workforce: Its emergence represents an
evolution in all workplaces, and designers should
take note of the principles they foreshadow—
especially as the quality of office environments and
experiences becomes increasingly important in
attracting and retaining employees. Work spaces
will inevitably change as the culture of work changes,
and mobile working within the office proper will
need to evolve past hot-spot workstations and hoteling.
Coworking ideas have already begun filtering into the
mainstream. In March, Google inaugurated Google
Campus, an East London space that mentors multiple start-ups under one roof. Hotels are jumping on
the bandwagon, too, opening up their underutilized
conference centers to the public.
The following roundup of facilities across the
globe, though wildly diverse, reveals many common
elements (chief among them an in-house kitchen or
café). Some spaces are rigorously designed, others
almost aggressively un-designed. But all are models
of flexibility, designed to simultaneously support
myriad ways of working and be reconfigured to suit
shifting needs and attendance. Sounds like just what
the corporate office needs, too.

perspective

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA Perspective - Spring/Summer 2013