Transdisciplinary exchange and collaboration

the end of the solitary home worker 

During the Utrecht Manifest Symposium about the new way of working ‘Het nieuwe werken’ keynote speaker Florian Idenburg from So-iL architects mentioned the phenomenon of the ‘co-worker clubs’

Clubs that offer freelancers, entrepreneurs and sometimes-even employees from larger companies, a flexible use of office facilities as an alternative to working in cafes, at home or in a mainstream office building. A service orientated concept, providing lunch, free Wifi, meeting rooms, classrooms, breakout spaces, a library, top-notch media facility, a kitchen and more. Sometimes additional activities that fit the profile of the club members are organized such as workshops and conferences and educational programs.

This concept creates for individual workers the opportunity to exchange ideas and expertise. The collaborative, sometimes even trans-disciplinary, nature of this set up creates a sense of community and shared purpose. Potential members are interviewed to make sure that they fit into the club’s mentality.

The co-working spaces are not typical office environments and often have a more comfortable and trendy ‘home-from-home’ atmosphere. There seems to be a vast expansion of these facilities in recent years. A variation on this theme is the Pop-up co-working space.

Slightly different but with some similar starting points, aimed at the entrepreneur that wants to share, to collaborate, is a recent project of Piet Hein Eek with the development of a new business complex, set for location in Amsterdam's Minerva harbor called ‘het dak’ (the roof). The framework of the project has been conceived to give companies the freedom and flexibility to create their own office space. An informal place where diversity defines the building's image, which is, composed of a collection of separate structures arranged in such a way that terraces, squares and alleys flow between, creating a network of paths.

A 'collective business concept' where the arts, media, entertainment and creative business services come together and collaborate through urban activity, 'the roof' derives its strength from the identity that users give to their individual spaces.

By the end of 2010 a group composed of leaders of university Innovation Centers, architects and designers met to discuss the future of the so called Innovation Centers, institutes that operate outside traditional academic parameters in an environment radically different than the typical university undergraduate experience.

In the article ‘How Innovation Can Thrive on Campus’ published by Herman Miller again the future IC workspace is described as flexible framework that offers an inspiring and diverse environment for collaboration and innovation

Some quotes:

“…Creating an innovative environment means more than providing space for experimentation. One important element of the search for a new product, process, or idea is the sense of community, making the quest a shared experience reinforced by interaction and engagement…’

 “…Temperature control, variable lighting, a pleasing colour scheme, access to natural light, and movable, ergonomic workspaces and furniture all create an environment conducive for interaction. The space will house many users and stakeholders and must be able to easily evolve in order to support differing functions as new projects are introduced and different uses are discovered to expand its capabilities…”

“…The centers are not classrooms, but highly flexible, dynamic spaces that must meet a wide variety of demands, often on a 24/7 schedule’

The interesting news is that the added value of these trans-disciplinary collaborations in co-working environments seems to be noticed also by the larger companies.