Arseny Leonovich: "Coworking Is A Universal Cluster For Business Growth And Exchange Of Ideas"

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

- The topic of coworking is extremely relevant and interesting. How did it start for you?

- The first coworking spaces at Artplay opened five years ago, there was also coworking in the format of libraries with meeting rooms, with literature addressed to architects and designers, coffee points, and the Internet. But it didn’t work, probably because these spaces did not meet the needs of those they wanted to attract, were not targeted. At the same time, in the West, coworking spaces were purposefully created as a place where a person developed a startup and at the same time received a "club" atmosphere that is attractive to people with similar goals. Over a cup of coffee, you discuss ideas, hear alternative opinions, which means that synergy arises: I do, I work, We work. Everything is built on the fact that like-minded people meet in one place.

At the same time, Internet technologies were improving, the startup as a business model became popular, young people rushed to coworking spaces, who now needed 10 sq. m. and super-fast Internet for the development of your own business. There is a demand on the market.

When and how did coworking become a professional task for PANACOM?

- For PANACOM, the topic of coworking arose in 2016, when I met with the leaders of the RE Group. There was a competition for the project of coworking "Start" in the Moscow region. PANACOM was chosen because we have experience in creating interiors of various formats, we are not only architects, but also graphic designers and industrial designers, we were able to conceptualize the tender request quickly. In four months, we developed a budget solution for 5000 sq. m for ten coworking locations.

The customer has great ambitions - to develop a network in the cities near Moscow, and then to enter the regions with a franchise. The regional Ministry of Innovation and Development, local communities joined, and we quickly managed to find suitable free sites. The first five coworking spaces "Start" were launched in 2016, and already in 2017 four coworking spaces were opened on which the architects of PANACOM worked, and in February-March six more new spaces will open.

Coworking spaces got the name "Start" because it is consonant with the word "startup", this is the beginning of the ascent, the brand logo is an arrow "up". In addition, the name symbolizes the theme of achievements in business and sports. By the way, each coworking space provides a place for outdoor recreation - exercise equipment, billiards, table hockey. In the interior design, we used symbols related to business - bitcoins, rubles, dollars, fragments of graphs of analytical calculations. Coworking spaces "Start" differ from Russian and foreign ones in that they have a clear target audience: this is a community of people who want to develop and grow professionally.

What were the features and difficulties of working on this project?

- We were given a serious task: to create a single solution that can be extrapolated to different locations. The interiors of coworking spaces combine mobility, flexibility (from small offices to open space), content: lecture hall, large kitchen with coffee point, print point, pin board with ideas, modular furniture.

We took the best, discarding the unnecessary in order to fit into the budget: we invested a minimum in the walls, the maximum investment in infrastructure. We have designed furniture produced by the Russian company Z-Office.pro. This is furniture of the middle price segment, but the order was large (1000 tables) and profitable for the customer. We designed the infographics and navigation ourselves, creating a recognizable language and style. This distinguishes our solution from the first projects implemented before us in 2016.

What is the difference between a coworking space and an office from the point of view of the author who designs it?

- The office interior is designed according to the needs of a particular company that will be located here. And coworking is different, it is created for a conditional client who comes here at will, and you need to make sure that this desire arises.

Unlike an office where everyone is working on common tasks, a coworking space gathers people with different ideas and projects. Over a cup of coffee, there are those who work on space flights, write programs for children, study biology, languages and something else. This is a cluster, so it should be universal and at the same time simple, accessible and understandable.

We need to balance the space: less open space, more box offices. This is due to the fact that open spaces with hot desks are visited once, and coworking as a business is interested in residents, for whom mini-offices are preferable. Here, in addition to the area and the Internet, visitors receive services: legal, accounting, consulting. Lecture halls "Start", for example, are equipped with the necessary equipment and can accommodate up to 70 people. It is attended by advanced officials and entrepreneurs who are responsible for the development of their cities.

Are Russian coworking spaces similar to Western ones or are there any differences determined by our conditions?

- We studied foreign examples, all of them are complex and bright in terms of interior solutions. At first, the customer said: "Do it for us!", But these options were predictably expensive. We optimized the project - removed niches, decorative lighting, left the most necessary things. Volumetric and embossed solutions moved to 2D and became flat graphics and prints. Where images and symbols were applied, the walls were leveled; where not, the surfaces were filled with color. However, the customers spent money on glass partitions for mini-offices, so “aquariums” appeared in the space for the work of small teams of residents.

What did the experience of working with typology give?

- Before "Start" we designed about 3000 sq. m for the Open Government of Moscow. The townspeople will come here to see at what stage the application is considered, whether the problems of parking, garbage collection, etc. have been resolved. The project developed according to the principle of coworking, and a lot of technologies, aspects of interaction between employees and visitors, and organization of space were worked out on it. While this is not a coworking space functionally, the similarities between the projects are obvious.

The design of things is changing, architecture, streets and the appearance of cities are changing, public spaces began to acquire special importance. It is no longer clear where the interior ends and where the street begins, and we work wherever there is wi-fi. But such a diffusion of scales from micro and macro and vice versa should be reflected by the architectural environment.

The shift of development interests towards mixed-use objects is associated with a change in the lifestyle of a person: we no longer separate work and private life, we value time and want to receive services quickly and in one space. While comprehending this problem in terms of urban planning, I promote the term spa-working - the organization of a comfortable functional environment for productive and harmonious work. And coworking spaces "Start" are beginning to embody these new ideas.