Coworking spaces are becoming increasingly popular, especially in the aftermath of a pandemic. There were around 19,000 coworking workplaces in the world in 2019. While mandatory lockdowns hindered development in 2020, coworking spaces are expected to hit all-time highs between 2021 and 2024, with an estimated 42,000 spaces.
Many companies are now decentralizing their workforces, allowing individuals to work entirely from home. While working from home has many advantages, some people prefer a change of scenery to a slightly more sociable setting. Coworking spaces come in handy in this situation.
Consider a coworking space to be a cross between an office and a coffee shop
If you’re a commercial designer wishing to broaden your horizons, coworking space design is a terrific place to start. This article provides advice on how to create a successful coworking space that attracts the right population.
Workstations for individuals
It’s critical to provide employees with private workstations where they may concentrate or have a business call or a one-on-one meeting. While coworking space is, at its core, a place where individuals come together to work with others, many people simply desire a workplace away from home where they can sit at their workstation or pod and work on their projects alone.
Open-air places that are shared
The design of a coworking facility necessitates open-air workplaces. Whether it’s just a few tiny tables and chairs or a large shared table with benches, the goal is for workers to sit near one another, boosting efficiency. Because mingling and networking are such important aspects of the coworking culture, make sure you design the area accordingly using a floor plan creator.
Coffee and snacks are available
People can’t function without coffee and snacks during the workplace. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration (kind of), but if you want to attract more employees to your coworking space, you should have a self-serve coffee and/or snack bar. If your client has the budget, you can even propose a full-service coffee shop with freshly made coffee, healthy food, and a full-time barista.
Adaptable seating layouts make sure there are a variety of seating options in a coworking space, such as cafe-style padded bench seating with circular tables, comfy armchairs, ergonomic office chairs, booths, desks, pods, and so on. Add a couple of beanbags, hammocks, and/or poufs if your customer is catering to a more creative demographic, such as tech start-ups, designers, and writers.
Various themes
Consider developing multiple distinct workplaces with different themes if the location permits it. Moving around and changing the environment inspires creative people, so providing it in a coworking space will assist encourage their creativity. Separate zones can also be created, just like at a university library. A calm zone (blue), a collaborative zone (purple), and an in-between zone, for example (yellow). You can experiment with alternative layouts using professional office space planning software to get the best results.
Appealing designÂ
People are drawn to beautiful environments. It’s an unavoidable truth of life. As a result, the more appealing your coworking space design is, the more individuals it will attract, and the more motivated they will be to join and spend time working on their projects there. A successful coworking space combines good design with good functionality. It’s up to you, the designer, to bring it all together.
Essentials for the workplace
Creating a coworking space, like designing a typical office, necessitates considering office essentials that employees may demand to ease their work. Include plenty of outlets (both conventional and USB), adequate lighting, a secure storage room for members’ things (maybe lockers), a dedicated area for printers and copy machines, and anything else you and your client think would help the space succeed and appeal to a larger population.
