The co-working hybrid is a mix of the modern and the traditional. We’ve picked the best aspects of each to create our product

 

Traditionally favoured by independent workers and start-ups, co-working has steadily grown over the years and is now considered a ‘must’ by many large companies and remote workers. It’s even a great way to create a new base for your company in various locations with fewer overheads while allowing you to recruit from a wider pool of candidates.

The first official co-working space opened around 2005, however, this office movement is thought to have stemmed from 90s Hackerspaces. These spaces were originally created as a solution for lone workers, allowing them somewhere outside of their home to work and socialize. Historically, co-working spaces were different from serviced offices as they were created by and for the ‘creatives’ rather than the ‘suits’. In recent years, these two types of the workplace have begun to blend making way for a new collection of spaces with different focuses.

Take us for example, while we have taken some elements of a serviced office, we have also taken inspiration from the co-working movement. This is partly to do with the physical aspects of the building. As a former sports court, there was a huge open space and high ceilings allowing us to add an upper floor. Rather than creating traditional, boxed in offices, we wanted to look to the new way of working and the ‘co-working values’ of collaboration, openness, community, accessibility, and sustainability.

Open-plan spaces are social. They are designed to encourage communication and promote a sense of teamwork due to the diversity of its members. It becomes a place where like-minded businesses can inspire one another, network and potentially find collaborative work partners. Finding yourself sharing a space with an array of people from different backgrounds, with different interests, different businesses and different goals give you unique opportunities that would have otherwise pass you by in a more typical office building.

“[Co-working] is a place and a style of working that combines independence and co-dependence. One that allows you to be a soloist, but still plays in the orchestra. To be social when you need to and to hold you accountable for delivering the things you say as important” (Dunstan, M (2015) The Co-working Revolution: Four Secrets to Successfully Working for Yourself)

While bean bags and pool tables may be suitable for the more quirky co-working space, we have followed a more traditional aesthetic but with our own twist. We chose a calming blue colour scheme as this is said to improve efficiency and performance, and rather than removing the original glass ceiling, we restored it and added several other large windows around the space. Natural daylight has been proven to enhance productivity, health and mood. We knew also that for the work our current and future members do, our priority had to be to get the essentials right (such as connectivity, comfort, location and a focussed environment to name a few) and offer a high quality, well thought out product.

 

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Newcastle / Gateshead has only one FTSE listed HQ, and we’ve felt privilaged that the core team that built Sage Software’s HQ has joined together again to restore The Racquets Court.

We own and inhabit The Racquets Court and that makes us unusual as building developers. We were told that it’s unusual for developers to be as involved as we were with every detail – to include the coat hooks.  We were fussy but not once did the teams at IDP, Tolent or Elliot do anything other than rise to meet our frequent challenges.  And the ‘process’ was managed as well as the build itself. This came home to us about half way through the construction …

… we were visited on site by two women responsible for a regional charity.  As they were leaving they asked us, in relation to Tolent’s people on site, “are they all like that” .  When we asked what they meant, they replied “are they all … nice”.  Of course, the answer was “yes” and that was our experience throughout – alongside stunning professionalism.  The project finished in the week that it was forecast to finish at the outset.  How about that for unusual!

Tolent and IDP and Elliots are local businesses and walking around Newcastle, Tolent’s brand is found frequently.  But – and this may be the crucial variable – their market is national and perhaps it’s this that makes them competitive and productive.

The implications of the local (small) market

The Newcastle / Gateshead market is a small one.  Indeed, that of the North East as a whole is also.  But that’s not the real issue – the real issue is that there simply aren’t that many businesses.  In other words, the number of businesses per head of population in the North East is around one-quarter that of London and the South East.  Put crudely, there are four times as many interior design businesses in London as there are in the South.

There are a number of implications of this – and some of the most important are not relevant here -but let’s take the implications for a potential customer for any service.  If that customer is not aware of this core fact; if that customer travels little in the UK and to the South East not at all, then that customer is very likely to be faced with a price which is high and service which is poor.  If local purchasing is ignorant of these facts (and most will be) they are likely not to recognise uncompetitive pricing and will not be demanding customers.

An example

As developers of The Racquets Court, we commissioned relatively few services ourselves.  One of the larger services that we did commission is that of connectivity and the bits and bobs associated with it. The core element of that is the Stellium line – upon which we comment elsewhere.  Stellium is not a locally owned business and it is by definition global. It behaves that way and service was outstanding.

Stellium only brings a line to the front door – at that point is hits a range of swithches and stuff which distribute connectivity around the building. We initially sought 2 proposals from local businesses. The costs of these were similar – and it seemed to us, rather high.

So we decided to call 2 businesses in Leeds.  The first thing to say is that the Leeds conurbation has a signiticant number of IT service businesses from which to choose.  The response from each of these businesses was superb – speedy, uncomplicated and friendly. The estimates from these 2 were also suprisingly close to one another.  But here’s the thing, these 2 were HALF the cost of the Newcastle based businesses.  And that is a very significant sum.

In the end, we had 4 proposals.  Each of the 4 offered different switches (3 were Cisco offers), but the fundamental cost differences were down to the offered firewall.  We carefully considered the proposals and our key requirements and decided that the expensive firewalls were not appropriate to our needs.  We did not consider that local offers quizzed us sufficiently before offering such expensive firewall options.

We did not award the project to the cheapest of the 4 proposals we received.

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We’ve tried hard but it’s really not been easy. Generally, and with some very noteable exceptions, British manufacture and North East business displayed uncompetitive pricing and poor service.  Here’s the story.

We know something about industrial clusters, so we knew to take a trip to London.  (Paul Miller led the project which mapped UK clusters – here’s the Executive Summary. For more of the study, please contact us).

The UK (office) furniture cluster

This is one of the UK’s most dense clusters. All things office interior are to be found in a small patch of Clerkenwell – an area roughly between Angel and Barbican in London.

(All things home furniture are around Tottenham Court Road).

Every British, American and European manufacturer of office interior products has a showroom here alongside consultants and design studios. The area has an annual design event called Clerkenwell Design Week.

We wanted to buy British and to source locally – we were only partially successful.

There are few British manufacturers of high end office furniture. We walked into one of the biggest in Clerkenwell, had a look round and our contact details were noted;  4  days later, we got a call back.  We identified in some detail our requirements and then waited.  Two weeks after that, we got a call from the Newcastle based agent and we politely offered feedback, once again identified our requirement and once again waited.  Nothing happened.

We were also disappointed that UK manufactured products were often significantly more expensive than European competitors.

And then there’s the service and the quality.  More on that below.

(We largely achieved ‘buy British AND buy local’ in the restoration and construction of The Racquets Court – that story is here).  Our experience of purchased services in the restoration and construction of The Racquets Court – legal, connectivity, internal switches, wifi and so on – is largely good, and that story is here).

Racquets Court seating

Office Chair

We’ve got four seating types in the office:  office desk chairs, meeting room chairs, conferences, kitchen chairs and sofas.  They come from Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.  They have been purchased with lumbar support and comfort in mind.

 

Our desk chairs are made by Viasit in Germany and the particular model we bought is both innovative and winner of the 2017 Green Product Award.   (If you have a product to enter for next year, go here).

The chair’s innovation is in the design of the back, which combines both mesh and fabric.  So, it’s a chair that’s good for the user’s back and the environment.

Breakout Areas

Viasit also make our meeting and conference chairs.  The meeting room chairs are a new release from Viasit and was a winning entry on the 2019 German Design Awards.  Our Viasit contract was handled in the UK by Office Chairs UK and James Reid there was a delight to deal with.

Our breakout sofas and coffee tables are by Hay – Scandinavian design, from Denmark.

And our kitchen chairs are by Vitra.  Vitra is Swiss but with probably the largest Clerkenwell showroom that we stumbled over.

Our UK supplier for Hay and Vitra products was CoExistance and Alex Reddicliffe there was great.

Racquets Court tables and desksMeeting Room Chairs

Our desks and meeting tables ARE British!  These are designed and made by Flexiform in Yorkshire.  Nick Saunders, Flexiform’s Sales and Marketing Director, was really helpful.

Our kitchen tables are Italian, by Plank – again supplied by CoExistance.

Racquets Court flooring

Carpeting is by Milliken – a US business which manufactures in the UK.  The carpet choice is frankly daunting!  And the choice is complicated by the fact that carpet is bought by the decibel.  In other words, we had to take a view on the sound insulation necessary in The Racquets Court – not easy in a building that had once been …. well, a racquets court.

Vinyl covering is by Polyflor – and it’s British.

Racquets Court Lighting

LightingVisitors to The Racquets Court invariably comment on the lighting – it’s ‘architectural’, designed to stand out and largely designed and made by Dorset based Dextra.

It’s not usual to find British lighting like this – often it’s Italian. We were thrilled to be able to source lighting from the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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19th February 2024

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Remote working isn’t a new thing, but it has risen in popularity since the pandemic. Many businesses have embraced remote or hybrid working. This...

Read More >

6th February 2024

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