Demand to ‘work near home’ drives Spacemade expansion

As workers look to alternatives to working from home or in traditional offices, Spacemade has launched two new neighbourhood workspaces to meet demand for suburban coworking.

The flexible office operator, which partners with landlords to design and provide bespoke workspace, is to open new spaces in London’s Wimbledon (with Wittington Investments) and Cricklewood (with Ziser).

Both spaces will include terraces, Zoom rooms, hosted meeting rooms and fully serviced flexible private offices. Community and wellness events and artisan coffee facilities will also be available.

Dan Silverman, co-founder of Spacemade, said the expansion was driven by people’s desire to no longer work from home five days a week but also not to return to commuting to central HQs.

The company cited research by Accenture, which earlier this year showed that 79% of people would like to work from a “third space” that is neither their home nor their usual workplace.

Nearly half of people said they would either not travel at all for work or would reduce business travel by half after the pandemic.

Silverman said: “Increasingly we are seeing demand to ‘work near home’. As working behaviours become more varied and increasingly personalised, we are creating individual spaces that offer flexibility and variety with the benefit of access to our growing network of spaces across the UK.

“Each of our workspaces are shaped by their locality as we truly there is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to the office. By partnering with an operator, landlords can provide a hospitality-led and flexible offer directly to their customers.”

Since launching at the end of 2019, Spacemade has grown to seven coworking spaces, totalling more than 100,000 sq ft. The company completed a £1m fundraise in March.

The number of new members jumped 15-fold between January and August 2021, the company said, adding that demand was particularly strong for its neighbourhood spaces.

These neighbourhood spaces include The Loft in Queen’s Park, London and Neighbourhood Works in London Fields.

Spacemade is also developing a network of city centre spaces, including private offices on The Strand for legal and professional services and a “luxury repositioning” of a Park House in Leeds.