How coworking hubs could recharge our cities
The coworking movement is picking up pace. As the digital era spawns new startups across the globe, shared workspaces – creative melting pots where freelancers and small businesses can rub shoulders, swap ideas and even trade business – are exploding across our cities. And their numbers will only rise
A report by property company DTZ predicts that by 2024, microbusinesses will account for 1.1 million new UK enterprises and selfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.
That’s just in Britain.
Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
But can they actually kickstart regeneration? Here we take a look at cities across the globe.
Sselfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.That’s just in Britain. Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
The coworking movement is picking up pace. As the digital era spawns new startups across the globe, shared workspaces – creative melting pots where freelancers and small businesses can rub shoulders, swap ideas and even trade business – are exploding across our cities. And their numbers will only rise. Selfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.That’s just in Britain. Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
But can they actually kickstart regeneration? Here we take a look at cities across the globe.
The coworking movement is picking up pace. As the digital era spawns new startups across the globe, shared workspaces – creative melting pots where freelancers and small businesses can rub shoulders, swap ideas and even trade business – are exploding across our cities. And their numbers will only rise
Sselfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.That’s just in Britain. Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
But can they actually kickstart regeneration? Here we take a look at cities across the globe.
The coworking movement is picking up pace. As the digital era spawns new startups across the globe, shared workspaces – creative melting pots where freelancers and small businesses can rub shoulders, swap ideas and even trade business – are exploding across our cities. And their numbers will only rise
Sselfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.That’s just in Britain. Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
But can they actually kickstart regeneration? Here we take a look at cities across the globe.
The coworking movement is picking up pace. As the digital era spawns new startups across the globe, shared workspaces – creative melting pots where freelancers and small businesses can rub shoulders, swap ideas and even trade business – are exploding across our cities. And their numbers will only rise
A report by property company DTZ predicts that by 2024, microbusinesses will account for 1.1 million new UK enterprises and selfemployment will surge by 15% in a decade.
That’s just in Britain.
Across the world, these fledgling businesses are looking for new stomping grounds. And coworking spaces – armed with their own mini ecosystems of tech facilities, cafes, talk programmes and networking apps – can lure them to places big corporations would fear to go.
But can they actually kickstart regeneration? Here we take a look at cities across the globe.
Moving into an urban wasteland
Coworking company Betahaus took over a stateowned building on derelict land in Berlin’s Kreuzeberg in 2009, transforming it into a hub for creative startups.
Six years later, the 3,000 sq m space is home to over 300 small businesses and freelancers. And it has been the launchpad for some of the tech industry’s biggest names, including music sharing platform, Soundcloud.
When we moved in, the surrounding was a desert,
says cofounder, Christophe Fahle. ‘Nobody would go to that end of Oranienstraße: there were no shops, no restaurants, just döner kebab shops.’ Since then, the area has seen a monumental shift: ‘Now we have an urban gardening spot, design shops and Modulor House, with its architects and creative supplies,’ Fahle adds. ‘I believe we are one of the main factors that have driven this change.’ And it’s a model Betahaus has replicated in Barcelona and Sofia.
Stemming the brain drain in American’s ‘rust belt’
Over in Detroit, entire neighbourhoods are wastelands. And unlike in Berlin – a magnet for young professionals and creatives – Detroit’s graduates have been leaving the state in droves over recent decades in search of job opportunities.
Could coworking spaces help stem the flow, while rebooting these areas? The answer is an emphatic yes.
With 78 percent of users being under 40years old, coworking hubs could offer Michigan’s graduates the security of an inbuilt microeconomy that would help them establish work relationships and businesses.
Detroit shares many of Berlin’s architectural qualities too – large industrial structures perfect for reuse as shared studio spaces.
One such example is in Corktown, Detroit, where local entrepreneur Phillip Cooley created Ponyride. The 30,000 sq ft space – part business incubator, part collaborative workspace – is firmly embedding itself within the surrounding neighbourhood.
Ponyride offers desks to 40 local entrepreneurs for a below market rental rate. The catch? Each member must give six hours of time to community education a month.
The coworking group is not only physically impacting its block, it is helping develop skills within the wider area.
‘It's about community coming together and asking, “What can we do outside of traditional systems?”’
says Cooley.
Core Values from Greg Gunn on Vimeo.
Coworking for manufacturers
Luring large companies – and their armies of staff – to areas not on the manufacturing map is an uphill challenge. So Baltimore Heritage and Housing Policy Watch are proposing a different tack. They want to transform 35 vacant buildings in the Southwest of the city into co working ‘makers spaces’ for small scale manufacturers.
Craft food and beverage makers, clothes manufacturers and even ‘wastetowealth’ incubators – who literally turn trash into cash as new products – would all be able to rent cheap space if the plans go ahead. They’ll share access to equipment, facilities and other infrastructure.
Will this have a positive impact on the area? That remains to be seen. But the architecture of the neighbourhood certainly lends itself to these workshops. ‘These buildings speak to a grand era, made for industry: there was a lot of thought put into them, beautiful and functional, with incredible brickwork and window treatments,’ says city urban planner Andy Cook.
Joining the dots in areas already on the up
Coworking clubs can also add to an area’s tapestry, filling the gaps big businesses, homes and and retail spaces. Over in Philadelphia, local entrepreneur Paul Maiello and developer Macro Sea joined forces to turn a former church in the Northern Liberties area into a 27,000 sq ft coworking facility. Constructed in 1854, the building has had many lives – from a paper box factory to an electrical supply warehouse – but by 2010 it lay derelict and boarded up.
Maiello, who lives in the neighbourhood himself, decided to buy the space and turn it into a creative hub, bringing it back into neighbourhood use. For him, the space fills a void in the neighbourhood’s overall cohesion:
‘It shows you can have small industry next to residential and retail, but you really need all of those things.’
Masterplanning the future
Big developers are beginning to wake up to coworking’s pulling power, making it a core part of their placemaking strategies. Over in London, a vast shared workspace is the lynchpin in a major plan to regenerate the derelict Royal Docklands.
The first phase of the £3.5 billion masterplan – drawn up by Fletcher Priest Architects – will see the transformation of the crumbling Millennium Mills into a tech and media coworking hub. Boosted by a £12m investment, it’s scheduled to open in 2017 before the completion of 3,000 homes.
‘We have a unique opportunity here to bring together many of the leading edge activities, with the space to grow, to collaborate, to move our city forward,’ says Elliot Lipton from the Silvertown Partnership.
‘We have now marked the start, with Millennium Mills set to house half a million sq ft of creativity at the heart of Silvertown.’
Beyond the capital, coworking has also been crucial in bringing the Liverpool’s defunct docklands back into use as the Baltic Triangle – a thriving new creative quarter.
It seems our cities’ industrial badlands are the perfect candidates for coworking’s midas touch.