Coworking: the beginning of the beginning

Formerly known as the Silicon Sentier, Numa demonstrates the dynamism of French Tech by hosting a host of start-ups in its workspaces.

Brooklyn in New York, Shoreditch in London, Kreuzberg in Berlin, Malasana in Madrid, the east of Paris: all places where the gentrification is following its course coworking mode. Indeed, there are very few districts at the cutting edge of major metropolises that have not seen the emergence of workspaces design, made from vintage furniture where the digital bohemians have made their home. A real social phenomenon? Without a doubt. And a global one at that, as the movement has spread as far afield as Nairobi, Belo Horizonte and Guadalajara, Baku or Yangon, where dynamic start-ups are taking part in their countries' economic boom and are finding these locations a fertile breeding ground for their development.

Frankly alternative in the mid-90s, when proponents of the free software their computer screens for a while to meet up in the early hours of the morning. hackerspacesShared workspaces are gradually becoming the norm. As both an observer and a supporter of this trend, the Deskmag counted 30 coworking spaces worldwide in 2006; by 2013 there were 2,490, and probably many more today.

While this world is fairly fragmented, a number of networks have gradually emerged. The Urban Station has around twenty addresses in Latin America, whileImpact Hub offers its members over 70 addresses across five continents. Even more emblematic, WeWork is now present in all the key cities of the United States, as well as in London, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. From one round of financing to the next, this Airbnb or Über success story has become a 'unicorn', one of those champions of new technologies valued at over a billion dollars. This should enable the group to expand rapidly from twenty or so establishments to around sixty.

As is often the case, France is a latecomer to coworking. La Cantine opened in Paris in 2008 - but has since largely caught up with the pack. According to Bureaux à partager, an online booking platform, there were 250 such spaces in France at the end of 2014. Smaller structures have sprung up here and there, as far afield as Belfort and Saint-Denis de la Réunion. Creative clusters such as îlink in Nantes and Darwin in Bordeaux have moved into new eco-neighbourhoods, combining business incubators and workspaces.

In Paris, Numa incubator has rapidly become a rallying point for Silicon Sentier start-ups, to the point of receiving financial backing from MAIF and Leroy Merlin, both of whom are interested in the ideas that could germinate in this laboratory for French-style innovation. As we await the opening of a new Mecca for the French Tech, the Halle Freyssineta former SNCF hangar bought by Xavier Nielthe boss of Free, being transformed by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte which is expected to house almost 1,000 start-ups under its roof in vast shared workspaces.

Working from home is not as comfortable as you might think

These are, of course, the widespread use of mobile computing tools and the flight of data into the Internet. cloud that have enabled all these places to flourish, allowing a growing number of professionals to work from anywhere. The sedentary self-employed - creative professionals, freelancers, the self-employed - were the first to adopt these very trendy places. "Working from home is not as comfortable as you might think"underlines Jean-Yves Huwart, founder of the Coworking Europe conference. Tightness of flats in big cities, lack of boundaries between private and professional life, potential distractions: all these factors have argued in favour of these shared workspaces. Especially as they offer affordable solutions, around 350 euros a month in Paris and 225 in the provincesThis includes access to a workstation and broadband internet.

Putting people first

However, and it's almost paradoxical in this age of digital technology, what coworkers are looking for is, above all, human contact. "It's not so much an infrastructure that these professionals are looking for as a feeling of being among peers.says Jean-Yves Huwart. While it's perfectly possible to work for free at home or in a café, they prefer to pay for an atmosphere, social well-being."As long ago as 1989, in his book The Great Good Place, the American sociologist Ray Oldenburg predicted the major role that these new technologies would play in the future. "third places as an alternative to the office and the home. "For many, life without a community has resulted in a lifestyle consisting mainly of commuting to and from work. But the social well-being and psychological health depend on community life."

The operators of coworking spaces have clearly understood this emotional dimension, which goes beyond simply offering all the conveniences needed to work effectively. Atmosphere counts; it makes you more productive, and what's more, it allows you to expand your professional network. So, almost above all, these workspaces see themselves as living spaces where ideas are exchanged between professionals from different backgrounds, communities where collaborations are cemented around unifying events such as joint dinners or conferences hosted by one or other of the members.

Once confined to creative circles, this state of mind now spills over into the polite world of business. "Coworking is just one facet of a much wider evolutionsays Jean-Yves Huwart. Just as IT has moved to the cloud, so the workplace will be decentralised. As the production force spreads out, the model where everything goes back to the company headquarters is no longer representative. Of course, this is not going to take six months, but rather decades."In the meantime, many multinationals are moving towards teleworking, with agreements here and there allowing employees to work from home for one or even several days a week. Driven on the one hand by the boom in new technologies, this transformation is being pushed on the other by the new generations of employees who are knocking on companies' doors. At the heart of their aspirations: to get away from the haunting metro-busy-dodo rhythm of daily life in the major metropolises, to achieve a better balance between professional and private life, and also to enjoy greater autonomy. Of course, there are still a number of obstacles to overcome if we are to make further progress, not least the old hierarchical reflexes. Accustomed to having their flock right under their nose, some very Old Regime managers have a bit of trouble with the idea of moving from a vertical organisation to a human management based on trust, with the onus on employees to meet their targets. A revolt? No, a revolution...

Satellite locations

Business centres are keen to capitalise on the emergence of teleworking. Used to offering companies a modular approach to real estate, with office rental contracts ranging from one day to a year, they are now adding flexible workspaces to their range. "More and more large groups are encouraging entrepreneurship, in particular to reduce their wage bill or reorganise their real estate, comments Grégory Ortiz, Marketing Director at Multiburo. They may be prepared to offer their employees teleworking solutions in satellite locations, provided that everything is part of a professional environment with fibre optics, ergonomic furniture, etc.". Surfing on the coworking trend, Multiburo launched the Spot in 2013, collaborative spaces integrated into business centres offering workstations and closed offices without reservation, as well as small stations for making calls in complete privacy, all in a lounge atmosphere with a cafeteria. After Neuilly, La Défense, Paris, Nantes and Lille, Spot recently opened in Toulouse and Antwerp, followed by Brussels and Marseille in 2016. "The Spot is now part of our model, alongside our meeting rooms and private offices.explains Grégory Ortiz. However, private offices are still our biggest demand and our core business. In fact, it's one of the development objectives for entrepreneurs. I'm starting with a workstation at the Spot, with the ambition of then having a real office, and then the next stage, a whole flat."

A world leader with more than 3,000 business centres worldwide, Regus is also adding coworking facilities to its offering, transforming some traditional office floors into Campus spaces. "They accelerated sharply in 2015 and will continue to decline, explains Christophe Burckart. We've reworked the look with a more modern design. Historically, the world of work favoured closed offices, but the new generation has a cooler, more community-based approach. We're not stopping ourselves from opening centres dedicated entirely to coworking."

Regus has joined forces with Caisse de Dépôts and Orange to launch the Stop & Work concept. While coworking spaces have so far tended to be located in city centres or up-and-coming neighbourhoods, the three partners intend to reach out to teleworkers by setting up "telepresence centres" close to residential areas. "The first opened in Fontainebleau last year, and another will soon appear in Beauvais.says Christophe Burckart. Development is set to accelerate in the near future."As the Greater Paris region takes shape, Stop & Work is making its own contribution to more sustainable regional planning. Instead of having to travel an hour each morning and evening to get to La Défense, employees will only have to travel a few minutes by car or, better still, on foot or by bike, to find in these 'telecentres' a professional environment - open workspaces, private offices, meeting rooms, very high-speed connectivity, videoconferencing - that employees do not have access to at home.

Alongside business centres, a host of players are betting on a more flexible working world. Online platforms such as Liquid Space in the United States and Bureaux à Partager and Deskup in France are inspired by the Airbnb model to act as intermediaries between office owners and professionals looking for space. Better still, and even closer to the model of the famous flat rental website, Office Rider offers private individuals the chance to rent out their flat as a workspace for the day. Above all, and in a far less virtual genre, two property giants, Bouygues and Nexity, have recently launched their own concepts. While Nexity already offers five Blue Office addresses in the inner and outer suburbs of Paris, Bouygues Immobilier celebrated the opening of its first Nextdoor in Issy-les-Moulineaux last June. Targeting both start-ups and large companies, the Nextdoor centre offers 225 fully-equipped workstations, 70 coworking spaces and no fewer than 13 meeting and videoconferencing rooms over three floors.

With flexible working still in its infancy, will these initiatives succeed? While the growth in the number of self-employed workers should ensure significant demand for collaborative workspaces, the answer is less clear-cut when it comes to businesses. "For the moment, their appetite for third places is almost non-existent.explains Cécilia Durieu, Associate Director of Greenworking. There are several reasons for this: firstly, because companies do not want to pay for both an empty seat on their premises and a seat in a telepresence room, but also for reasons of confidentiality. For employees, the interest is also limited. If they stay at home once a week, it's not to waste time in transport or to leave one open space for another. For reflection, the calm of home is more appropriate."

"Companies are looking for the most efficient model, says Nathanael Mathieu, founder of Neonomade. Today, they tend to regulate working from home. But the question arises of giving access to third places to those who don't want to work from home. Until now, people went to the office because they had to. In 10 years' time, for those who can work behind their computer, we'll be going to the office when we want to, to meet up or to work on a project.". The idea of collaborative workspaces is also gaining ground within companies, but more internally. Following the example of Google, some are reorganising their activities around vast campuses, like the new Crédit Agricole headquarters in Montrouge. Campuses where inspiring workspaces will give everyone the freedom to demonstrate their creativity.