Kojo and Nenonen analyzed coworking spaces near Finland’s capital and categorized them into groups based on “their main characteristics.” The duo identified “six coworking space typologies… : public offices, third places, collaboration hubs, coworking hotels, incubators and shared studios. The categorization was made by using two axes: business model (for profit and non-profit) and level of user access (public, semi-private and private).” The researchers feel their findings are useful because they “provide a viewpoint on how co-working spaces can be categorized…In practise, the results can be applied by all stakeholders who are working with alternative workplace solutions to respond to the needs of new ways of working, especially via workplace services for multi-locational and flexible working.”
Inka Kojo and Suvi Nenonen. 2016. “Typologies for Co-Working Spaces in Finland – What and How?” Facilities, vol. 34, no. 5/6, pp. 302-313.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.