Co working spaces are all about work and fun
Realty+ interviews Sachin Venugopal, Director, Design lattice, where he explains the idea behind setting up Design Lattice and the importance workspace Interior Design has on a company’s positive growth.
? The inception of Design Lattice
Sachin has been a part of the corporate workspace delivery team since 2004 and has worked with top design and project management consultancies. In Y2015, while part of a top RE strategy team, based in Mumbai, Sachin heard his calling to set up his own design practice in his home town of Hyderabad. The state of Telangana had just become a separate state and the future of Real Estate in Hyderabad was uncertain. Because of the situation before the new states formation and the exodus and thinning of Architecture and Interior design firms in Hyderabad during the Telangana statehood process, Sachin and Tapati saw an opportunity to up the Design Scenario there. Hyderabad, at this time, had been making a new identity and was arrow shooting upwards in the Real Estate space. Tapati and Sachin’s passion for creating a new design scene in Hyderabad and the opportunity of giving back to the field in their hometown led to the inception of Design Lattice Architects.
? How does one create Comprehensive solutions on Workspace Interior Design?
A Workplace has to embrace and accommodate employees from different cultures and walks of life. Importantly workplaces also have to be aligned with a company’s growth plan and the nature of its business and level of employee engagement.
Creating a design for a workplace today demands to take into consideration the culture of the company and its way of working with respect to the level of collaboration required among associates. The design elements take into account the inclusiveness of employees’ in line with a company’s values.
Today, most multinational companies are increasingly adopting flexible workplace arrangements that increasingly dependency on technology. There is an increase in the floating workforce in many offices because they’re moving to a new way of working. The impact of this is that offices are increasingly becoming technology driven and communication systems are the centre of offices. Office designs have to take into cognizance these evolving trends and accommodate them.
? Are companies opting for the co-working design concept over the traditional office space concept?
Co-working space is a concept partly derived out of an older business center model. Newer companies (start-ups and new market players alike) are increasingly adopting co-working culture. Co-working spaces not only provide a ready to use working space but provide a very textured work atmosphere to people with varied skills from different backgrounds; this allows individuals from different fields to work in close proximity. Coworking spaces add an additional dimension of forming new alliances, learning and intellectual growth of users. All this is supported by a design that provides a high degree of collaboration making the freedom of working flexibly the main reason to shift to a co-working style.
Large market players housed in larger facilities across the region are not expected to adopt the co-working style because of their HR policies or inefficient economies of scale, which is why smaller startups, new entrants, and flexible workforces will remain the majority occupants of co-working spaces.
? How does one make their workspace a fun destination to work?
Coworking spaces are all about work and fun. This is visible in interactions individuals using these spaces have with each other. Trends today include Pay and use bars, Game rooms, and Mini-Gyms. Also, concierge service on call to assist bookings and outings make the feeling of “being taken care of” complete.
Seating arrangements including sitting desks, standing desks, sofas, couches, bean bags and many more are commonplace. Today’s co-working spaces have a Mother’s room and Babysitting facilities too. Take for example the recently inaugurated WeHub project in Hyderabad, which is a coworking space designed for Women Entrepreneurs, this space is replete with support spaces like a mother’s room for expectant and new mothers and a child care area. Startups are assisted by a chartered accountant and a bank loan facility is available to grow a company. All this is part of “the being taken care of” feeling. Team trainings, leadership trainings and aptitude trainings are available on pay by use basis and space design caters to all these.
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