Co-working and flexible working: how can real estate support new work organisations?
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Empty offices, working from home, open spaces shared with children and a new sleepy-busy-sleepy rhythm... Our living and working habits have been particularly impacted by the health crisis, and everyone in the last few months has been able to reflect on the future of work. Not like before, but especially not like now. What if third places had a role to play in the emergence of a more flexible work organisation?
At Nhood, we like it when we can change things for the better. That's why we've already started testing new co-working concepts to be useful to our neighbours and the territories in which we operate.
Co-working in the Belpo shopping centre: An office of your own, next door to your home!
While most European workers appreciated the fact that they no longer had to commute to work (the number one benefit in 80% of the countries surveyed by Streelcase), 33% of employees surveyed did not have a quiet room to concentrate in and 35% did not have a comfortable workspace. More and more managers are thinking about solutions in this direction: such as satellite offices, rented in co-working spaces close to the employees. And at Nhood, this speaks to us!
As managers of 47 commercial sites in Italy, we approached Catalitic, a company specialised in coworking, to realise the LinkNow project: the first coworking in a shopping centre in Italy!
Large companies, small ones or freelancers, at the Belpo (San Rocoo Al Porto) shopping centre everyone is welcome. Meeting rooms, reading space, video facilities... our neighbours have access to work spaces designed for them while enjoying the services offered by a shopping centre: shops, parking, restaurants, after-school services for children aged 3 to 12, gym. Here everything is designed to optimise the day and the productivity of each person and to turn their home into a place of relaxation and life for the whole family.
And because a workspace should be a place where you feel good, we chose to enclose the offices with glass walls to give it a communal and unifying aspect, while guaranteeing confidentiality thanks to soundproof elements. Great care has been taken to make this space sustainable; the building materials are from reclaimed or fully recyclable waste elements. And all the furniture is durable, to avoid waste and frequent changes, with no toxic substances that could become airborne. A healthy environment for professional development!
Etable Cowork in Sorgues: A collective space for collaborative projects
In France, 36% of employees complained of loneliness and 13% reported a decrease in motivation. With forced teleworking, some have seen group exchanges decrease. Less challenged, they want to find a collaborative space to exchange and innovate with their colleagues, but also with other actors in their sector of activity! This is precisely the ambition of the new coworking space created with our partner l'Étable Cowork in Sorgues, on the Avignon Nord ZA. Unique in its kind, this collaborative workspace is dedicated to innovative start-ups in retail, leisure but also in payment methods, mobility, catering, entertainment, big data or digital...
The new 150 m² space on the ground floor of the Pixel building includes an open space, a meeting room and offices. The concept was defined with the support of French Tech Culture, which recommended the creation of a themed coworking space to bring together start-ups and their clients. Its specificity: it will be able to function as a springboard towards the Nhood universe, which manages shopping centres in particular, and the companies of the nearby ecosystem.
"The connection will be made via ZTP, the accelerator serving the companies of the Mulliez family (founder of Auchan, editor's note). Working as a gateway, it will define with the managers of the selected start-ups which company of the Mulliez galaxy will be able to welcome them. That said, other neighbouring companies may also welcome them. And the innovations developed will not be exclusively for the retail sector. They will be services for everyone, including small shops."
François Roux, Project manager at Nhood
A co-working space that promotes exchanges and boosts the local economy? This is also the project of The Business Factory, the largest co-working space (class A) in Brasov, Romania. Opened last June, the project covers an area of 1,300 square metres and also includes a conference room, and the whole area is structured to accommodate 130 offices, both in open space and in private spaces, to which only the companies or individuals who rent them have access. The Business Factory includes two meeting rooms, a library, an open space for informal meetings and a kitchen, all in accordance with the new measures of social distancing. These spaces, the services we offer (legal, accounting or administrative assistance) and the professional events we organise allow us to federate the local entrepreneurial community and to accompany them in the development of their business while making Brasov a recognised centre of activity.
