How Does Coworking Work?

Coworking basically means nothing more than “working together”. This form of work originally originated in Silicon Valley and describes a workplace that is flexible in terms of time and possibly also in terms of location, which is usually shared by several people. A special feature of coworking spaces are large and open spaces. Therefore, building types are particularly suitable for this, which have contiguous office rooms or are distributed over entire floors. Every now and then you also come across coworking areas in old buildings or factory halls.

In contrast to an office community, a business center or a temporary office, coworking spaces are geared towards social interaction. The first coworking spaces, also known as coworking offices, emerged in the early 2000s through startups in the United States and quickly spilled over to Europe. Coworking spaces are springing up, especially in large cities such as London, Paris, Frankfurt or Barcelona.

Basically, coworking is a worldwide trend. While there were only 14 coworking spaces globally in 2007, nine years later there were already 11,000 shared offices. A growth that seems unstoppable. For 2020, more than 26,000 such jointly used workspaces are predicted. By 2035, around 35% of all office space in large cities is to be used by coworking providers.

There are currently more than 30 coworking spaces in the Greater Frankfurt Area alone. Recently, there have also been competing offers in the surrounding area. Coworking spaces are a popular contact point for digital nomads, i.e. people who combine work and travel and are often on the go.

In a coworking office, not only do the employees of a single company work together, but completely different people come together: creative people, the self-employed and employees from a wide variety of companies. These people each taken individually in the same open-plan office, but productive exchange can take place with one another.

The main characteristics of coworking are community, openness, cooperation, sustainability and accessibility. The joint use of resources helps each individual to save costs. A flexible enlargement and reduction of a team is possible at any time, since there are usually no long notice periods in coworking spaces.

However, a disadvantage of the new office trend can be the background noise in the open-plan office or the limited space on site. The existing on-site infrastructure can also easily reach its limits, for example if the meeting room you need is currently not available.

Open-plan offices in a coworking space usually alternate with separated office areas. In this way, you can also be separated for project work or meetings. Depending on the package booked, you have access to certain equipment at a workplace, such as:

• desk and chair
• lockable cabinet, shelf or roll container
• flip charts and whiteboards

The use of the on-site infrastructure is often included in the price:

• WiFi, telephone, and fax
• printers and scanners
• video projector

As a rule, a coworking provider not only offers an open-plan office, but usually also flexible individual offices, meeting rooms, and business addresses. But the most important thing about a coworking space is good accessibility and the exchange with others.

There are now several dozen coworking offices in Frankfurt.