RETHINKING COWORKING DESIGN & TECH
Technology and space design have been an important and essential parts of co-working sector. Flex operators are now coming up with many app based applications and tech enabled designs at workplaces to attract employees back to offices. According to Neetish Sarda, Founder, Smartworks, technology is going to be the crux of flex spaces. He said, “Earlier coworking was only focusing on services and space design. Now we have added another layer which is the tech layer. Presently technology, services and workplace design run concurrently in flex space segment.” Karan Chopra, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Table Space was of the view that flex space operators need to keep bringing innovation in design as well as technology and service applications now and then to keep the newness alive for the occupiers. Parthajeet Sarma, Senior Associate, Advanced Workplace Associate while agreeing that innovation is important and it is primarily being driven by occupiers, cautioned that too much of everything can also be damaging and one has to be selective in which trends to adopt. Speaking about the big design changes in office spaces Karan Chopra said, “Office is like a mobile phone. We change our phone every year or two. Likewise, we need to keep changing the look and feel of the office environment. This breaks the monotony for the workforce that come there every day. More collaborative spaces as against fixed work desk are in demand so why not build an office only thinking a year, make it design friendly and add innovation to it.” Parthajeet Sarma views on design change was, “Covid has really taught us about the changes happening without warning in a very short span of time and smart organisations are actually using this narrative. They are listening to their employees, what they want in a workplace, empathy has taken centre stage. Office design and innovation is not just a leadership decision anymore.” NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN FLEXSPACES Ramesh Nair, CEO India and Managing Director, Market Development Asia, Colliers Ramesh Nair said, “Reverse migration to Tier 2 cities, the constant growth of new start-ups, and increased occupier confidence have helped in overall improvement of the flex industry across the country. Flexible workspace stock is expected to cross 60 million sq ft in me tro and non-metro cities by 2023.” Neetish Sarda talking about the potential in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities said, “These cities have a lot of potential. The five top Tier-2 cities in my pick will be Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore and Indore.” Parthajeet Sarma said, “IoT and AI will play a very important role at coworking space from tracking occupier use of space to driving efficiencies in utilization of desk spaces, meeting rooms and ensuring human centric aircondition and lighting needs.” According to Karan Chopra, Metaverse is the new buzzword in the industry and the coworking players are l figuring out how to integrate meta into the overall offerings but it does look interesting and eventually will become a necessity more than an option.”
Tags : Neetish Sarda Founder Smartworks COWORKING DESIGN & TECH Parthajeet Sarma Senior Associate Advanced Workplace Associate Ramesh Nair CEO India and Managing Director Market Development Asia Colliers Ramesh Nair Metaverse