Coworking spaces: a new lease on life for historical architecture
Your current coworking space might have been a church, or even a bus factory in its previous life. The fancy walls could be the historical construction of a bygone era, or a part of a structure left behind by a pious pilgrim. The high ceilings might have seen icy days when the space collected huge amounts of sweating ice blocks, or the place where you are sitting right now could have once been the little table of a studious pupil.
Brand new coworking spaces and their future plans
The seeds of coworking are quickly spreading around the world, and spaces are now popping up at the same speed as the information that drives the coworking movement. So what are these new spaces like? What are their experiences within the first weeks of existence? As a way to give you a sense of the new coworking spaces available around the world, Deskmag spoke with four spaces that have opened in the US, Thailand, Spain and France, within the last three months.
Power Lunches: Coworking Style
Power Lunches are typically associated with the corporate lifestyle. We imagine business suits, fancy cars, folders full of incomprehensible paperwork, racking up a huge tab and then putting it on the company credit card. Power Lunches set the stage for interviews, meetings, planning projects, and of course, the basic need to eat. Yet what about those who also need to conduct interviews and have meetings, but don’t have the freedom to take clients out to a steak dinner on the company credit card? Freelancers need to eat too!
The sharing economy vs. the dominant model
We sometimes need to go back to the basics, especially during a time of structural crisis like the one we are experiencing now, which has ultimately called the principles of our economy into question. We cannot not understand what the “sharing economy” means if we do not ask ourselves what “economy” means. I would stand by this definition: the economy is a human activity consisting of production, distribution, exchange and the consumption of goods and services. Using this explanation at a starting point, let's compare the new sharing economy and the classic economy model, point by point.