On March 24, Kim Velsey reported in The New York Times that “Changing American work habits and the growing popularity of coworking spaces like WeWork, Workhouse and the Farm continue to transform the office landscape. And residential developers have taken notice: A number of new residential projects feature shared work spaces that channel the vibe of trendy start-ups with computer bars, comfortable seating and coffee stations. According to a Gallup survey released last month, 43% of employed Americans said they work remotely at least some of the time. Between that trend and the rise of the freelance economy, residents now expect more than a drab teleconferencing room” (“Luxury Buildings’ Latest Amenity: Co-Working Spaces,” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/realestate/luxury-buildings-latest-amenity-co-working-spaces.html?_r=0).
Coworking spaces in residential buildings, and the use of those spaces, might signal a number of things: that the prices charged by coworking spaces such as WeWork are seen as high, that many people don’t have money left over after they make their expensive rents/mortgage payments to pay coworking space fees, that people just can’t work in their apartments because their fundamental design does not support knowledge work, that home and work are closer to merging than it’s seemed before, or something else entirely.
I think the rise of coworking spaces in residential buildings makes it clear what social animals we humans are. When we work in our homes, for whatever reason, we often see no one else in the flesh all day. If the people we share our home with work outside it, or we live alone, our only visual contact of any kind with other humans during our workday is via video conferences. Many of those video conferences distort what others look and sound like, for starters, and that alters the social value of those electronic connections.
When we venture into a coworking space in our home building, we do see other humans and although use rules probably only allow rudimentary communication with our fellow resident co-workers, at least we don’t feel alone. Humans are a social species, and feeling isolated is very stressful.
The loneliness of the at-home worker is not news. It’s been discussed in the popular press and research literature for a long time. What’s new is this way to overcome it.
Humans’ need for contact with other humans creates a puzzle for workplace designers to solve. People like other people to be somewhat nearby, but it can be hard to work with them around if we have any real excuse at all to talk to each other. Excuses, from funky weather to sports teams’ antics, lead to conversations that can last a long time if the people involved don’t have iron willpower. Some conversation builds morale, too much destroys performance.
Workspace designs that recognize and respect the tasks at hand can help us be with others but work to our full potential. Sometimes having others around in earshot is fine; for example, if we’re doing something that doesn’t require us to focus too much. When we do need to concentrate, being able to work from a place where we have some connection with the rest of humanity, because we can hear the faint rumble of their voices or see them passing by a frosted glass panel in a door, can work. Research continually shows that being around other people energizes us, with lots of others around often pushing us to a point where we can’t do thoughtful work. Designers need to work reminders of living, acting others into space for focused work while keeping people trying to concentrate from being able to understand any conversations underway or getting mentally involved in nearby activity, for instance.
This drive to be with others is also something that workplace design must often protect us from. Even in spaces where people are doing work that doesn’t require them to concentrate, it’s good (if they’re not something like an emergency response team that truly needs continuous contact) that seats prevent easy eye contact among people sitting near each other, in what we can call “chat range.” Clever seat orientation can reduce “issues” in the chat range, for example. Easy eye contact can lead to so many conversations that work performance degrades.
Coworking areas in residential buildings may be new, but their development is a response, at least in part, to human beings’ drive to be reminded that they are not alone.
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.