RISE OF

FEATURE
RISE OF
HOW THE IDEA OF
CONNECTING LIKE-
MINDED SOCIAL
ENTREPRENEURS
WENT FROM
CONCEPT TO
GLOBAL NETWORK
IN A DECADE.
COWORKING
And Its Influence on Social Innovation
The first Impact Hub coworking
space dedicated to social
innovation opened in London in
2005 and still thrives today.
Photo: Melissa North, 2013
Text: Katie Crepeau
IN 1998, A GROUP OF STUDENTS from the
progressive, internationally-focused Atlantic College
in Wales were captivated by the significance of the
millennium on the horizon. While on summer break,
Jonathan Robinson, Mark Hodge, Katy Marks, Yuill
Herbert and few other students were wandering
along London
’
s South Bank and saw the imposing,
Modernist Royal Festival Hall where thousands of
events and exhibits take place each year. Coming
from a progressive school where they were
encouraged to act on ideas, the students wanted
to put on an event to
“ shake up lots of peoples ’
thinking
”
and properly kick off the new millenia.
They decided to speak with the Festival Hall event
managers about an event for the millennium
celebration and convinced them to take a booking
for a 2-day event to take place the following year.
One year and many phone calls and faxes
later, the students had a fully-fledged conference
featuring some of the most prominent world
leaders and thinkers, including human rights
activist and The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick,
English journalist and TV presenter Jon Snow and
several Nobel Peace Laureates.
“ I ’
m not entirely
sure how a bunch of 19 years olds attracted such
figures, ”
recalled Jonathan Robinson.
“
I guess it
was our combination of being kind of cheeky and a
bit humble all at the same time.
”
The 2-day event
on human rights, environmental and social issues
went off without a hitch and lead to a flood of
interest from more international organizations, the
most interesting of which came from the United
Nations. Organizers of the United Nations World
Summit on Sustainable Development asked the
group to replicate the Royal Festival Hall event for
their 2002 summit taking place in Johannesburg.
Although the students were now deep in the
throes of university studies, they weren
’ t about
to let the opportunity pass them by. They booked
flights to Johannesburg during a week-long break
and quickly realized that the convention center
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FEATURE | Rise of Coworking
The 3,250 square foot
Impact Hub Islington
provides sweeping views
of London from the top
floor of an old warehouse.
assigned to them was not the appropriate place
for their event.
“ Against everyone ’ s warnings
that horrible things would befall us, [we] decided
to venture into Soweto to find out what people
there made of this impending summit, ”
said
Jonathan. Created most dubiously when white
South Africans moved black South Africans and
Indians out of the city, Soweto is most infamously
known as a political hotbed during Apartheid.
Jonathan and his peers met people who had
been at the heart of the anti-Apartheid movement
and were now shifting towards community
regeneration. They knew nothing of the UN
’ s
World Summit but had a different sustainable
development conundrum underway--dealing with
a huge mountain of waste that was accumulating
in the center of their neighborhood. Jonathan
and his comrades saw an opportunity:
“
We felt
there was a real connection between what these
guys in Soweto were telling us the needed to
make progress and the global issues around
progress and sustainable development that we
wanted to be telling leaders at the UN summit.
”
With Katy Marks working on the ground for
18 months in Soweto, the team and community
members were able to turn the mountain of
waste into a thriving, fully-functioning area
by the time the UN Summit took place in 2002.
Buildings were constructed from discarded
glass bottles and car tires. A defunct water
tower was turned into a light beacon. Half a
dozen small social enterprises were providing
food, waste, music, and film services. Soweto
’ s
Mountain of Hope became an icon for community
regeneration and sustainable development at a
local scale, and many world leaders took notice.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, UK Prime
Minister John Prescott, Canadian Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien, and thousands more World
Summit delegates visited the Mountain of
Hope. Inspired by the magnitude of what was
accomplished, Kofi Annan scrapped his formal
speech and instead spoke about the project
remarking that there was no point waiting for
the UN summit to deliver since the real summit
had happened at the mountain in Soweto.
After returning to the UK, each of the students
continued with their individual studies and, upon
graduation, wondered how best to use this
inspiring energy they had discovered, and the
conversations it prompted, to make real change.
As in Soweto, they realized that people in the UK
wanted to make a difference through their work,
yet they were generally operating out of their
homes, in isolation. Jonathan Robinson, a member
of the group that had traveled to Soweto and a
recent graduate and soon-to-be cofounder of the
Hub organization, asked himself a question:
“ What
if these people could come together in the same
physical space and have a place to connect?
”
>>
Top Photo: Melissa North, 2013
Bottom, Left Photo: Kat TP, 2014
Bottom, Right Photo: Debbie So, 2014
Left: Hosts at Impact Hubs welcome guests
and make connections in order to make the
experience warm, welcoming and homely.
Right: The kitchen becomes a common
meeting place at many Impact Hubs.
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FEATURE | Rise of Coworking
Top Left: Hub Birmingham.
Bottom Left: Lounge spaces at
Hub Melbourne.
Bottom Right: Petal-shaped tables
have become a staple of Impact
Hubs' open workspaces.
Right: Impact Hub Bergen reflects
its Scandinavian environment.
The First Hub Takes
Shape
In 2005, the group of former students founded
the first workspace solely dedicated to social
innovation. Named
“ The Hub, ”
the 3,230-squarefoot
(300-square-meter) space opened on the
top floor of a warehouse-turned-artist space in
London
’
s Islington district, collaboratively built
by the people who would eventually work there.
Design and construction were a bit crude at
the beginning: starting with an open wood floor
surrounded by old brick walls and topped with
a sawtooth roof, the team began marking out
different areas by drawing on the floor with chalk.
They broke up the space into reception, event,
office, and meeting spaces, as well as a kitchen,
restrooms, and storage closets. With a limited
budget, the group hand-built wood-and-metal
desks, sunken meeting spaces, and a secluded
library. Once the space was ready for opening, the
Hub London began accepting startups, freelancers,
and social enterprises, with membership fees
based on the amount of time per month each
member anticipated working in the space.
Some of the features incorporated into the first
Hub have become staples for new Hubs around
>>
“Connecting
people from
different worlds
into meaningful
relationships”
Top Left: Lynton Pepper, Architecture 00 Bottom Left: Hassle Melbourne
Bottom Right: Impact Hub San Francisco Right: Nils Olav Mevatne
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FEATURE | Rise of Coworking
the world, including leaf-shaped tables that spiral
from a central shelf, and a reception area where
members take turns serving as
“ host ”
for the
space. Maria Glauser, who was the first host
at Hub London and later led the development
of hosting practice, said,
“ We didn ’
t want any
traditional receptionists. We wanted to host
people in the same way that you would host
someone in your house or at a party — making
guests feel at home and introducing them to
people they should meet. So we looked at how we
could develop a practice of creating collaborative
environments and connecting people from
different worlds into meaningful relationships.
”
Although enterprises like the Hub are now
commonly found in most large urban cities, the
idea of bringing people together in a common
space to foster connections was not a new idea.
In 1995, C-base opened as the first hackerspace
— a precursor to coworking spaces — in Berlin,
founded on the mission of increasing knowledge
and skills in computer software, hardware,
and data networks. Four years later, in 1999,
Bernard De Koven coined the term
“ coworking ”
as a method of facilitating collaborative work and
business meetings, a phenomenon of
“ working
together as equals.
”
Brad Neuberg began using
the same term in 2005 to describe a space
to support the community and structure of
working with others. The term stuck. Since then,
coworking spaces have sprouted up around the
world, growing from three in 2005 — Spiral Muse
in San Francisco, the Hub in London, and St.
Oberholz in Berlin — to more than 3,000 in 2014.
As London
’
s first Hub began to attract members,
it simultaneously attracted attention from people
who wanted to build similar spaces in their own
cities. In 2007, Hub London held a meeting for
people interested in creating their own spaces; it
attracted attendees from as far afield as Mumbai
and Sao Paolo.
“
Although the initial purpose of the
meeting was merely to share lessons related to
the hosting practice, it quickly became clear that
most attendees had come to learn how they could
replicate the entire Hub model, ”
wrote Michel
Bachmann, cofounder of the Zurich Hub, in the
Stanford Social Innovation Review. Many of the
meeting
’
s attendees went on to found Hub sites
in their home countries, inspiring a movement
A movement
of like-minded
people.
of like-minded people building similar Hub
communities around the world. Three years after
the first Hub was opened, nine new Hubs were in
operation, including Amsterdam, Johannesburg,
and even a second location in London.
The success of the Hub network — which now
has more than 60 locations worldwide and 20
new spaces under way — comes from the spirit
of collaboration and a firm commitment to its
members.
“
The evolution of the Hub has never
been about any one person, ”
wrote Bachmann.
“ If there ’
s one thread that runs through the
history of the Hub, it
’
s the fundamentally
collaborative nature of the organization.
”
>>
Left: The warm and cozy tower
level of Impact Hub Kings Cross.
Right: Hub Brixton.
This Spread: Lynton Pepper, Architecture 00
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FEATURE | Rise of Coworking
Locally Influenced within
a Global Network
Top Left: A WikiHouse prototype
creates a unique meeting room at
Impact Hub Westminster.
Bottom Left: The Impact Hub
Westminster's bright space is
highlighted by a glazed meeting space.
Bottom Right: Flexible furniture and
an open floor plan allow Impact Hubs
to be used during the day, evening
and night.
As each new Hub was created, many Hub
founders and managers identified three common
elements emerged as keys to success and
longevity: (1) A community of entrepreneurial people
who become members and create a network
for sharing skills, cross-fertilizing information,
and developing new ventures. (2) Content that
is inspiring and thought-provoking to facilitate
connections through events, labs, incubation
programs, and facilitated meetings. (3) A physical
space that is flexible and functional, facilitating
activities to work, meet, learn, and connect.
Although the Hubs (which changed name to
Impact Hub last year) are part of a global network,
each is rooted in its locale -- even within a
single city. The original Impact Hub London takes
inspiration from the local artist community and
the old warehouse building where it resides, while
just three miles away, Impact Hub Westminster
offers an entirely different atmosphere. Located
in the New Zealand High Commission building,
the Westminster location buzzes with energy
from the political district, which plays host to
Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, and
the British Prime Minister
’
s residence. Designed by
architecture and design strategy firm Architecture
00 — whose founders were members of the first
Impact Hub London — the
“ high octane ” space
purposely utilizes high acoustics to mimic the fastpaced
surrounding neighborhood.
Though the energy of the Westminster location
responds to the local atmosphere, it still maintains
Impact Hub
’
s global focus on connecting members.
Workspace designs often look at efficiency and
productivity of individuals serving a company,
but Impact Hubs seek to foster connections
of individuals working independently.
“ That ’ s
the efficiency of the Hub: getting the maximum
connections out of people, ”
said Lynton Pepper,
the Architecture 00 designer of Impact Hub
Westminster.
“
We look at how to get [members]
moving around the day to meet more people.
”
When Impact Hub Westminster first opened, the
designers rearranged the space every month to
disrupt the flow. This created new opportunities
to network as people constantly met new Hub
members. Architecture 00 also designed permanent
space to foster connections.
“
We used the
common enemy: washing up, ”
said Pepper.
“ We
purposely put in one tiny sink so people have to
queue to use it. People then have to talk with each
other — and the common conversation starter is,
‘ Why such a tiny sink?! ’ ”
Rooting design in psychology, Pepper is always
looking at how architecture influences people and
their behaviors.
“ We design for ‘ condition settings, ’
based on comfort, attention, and noise, ”
said
Pepper. The Westminster space includes a series of
environments for different activities in anticipation
of how people will use it, and incorporates
opportunities for members to take ownership.
For instance, a series of small rooms became
telephone and recording booths, where members
installed acoustic panels as needed. Other areas
are becoming makerspaces, where members
can build things. Through these opportunities for
participation, the space is meant to instill a sense
of ownership in members rather than a feeling of
being managed or controlled.
>>
This Spread: Lynton Pepper, Architecture 00
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FEATURE | Rise of Coworking
ORGANIZATION
Impact Hub
WEBSITE
www.impacthub.net
Impacts of a Network
With nearly 10 years of development under
its belt, the Impact Hub network has begun to
evaluate its impact on members and on larger
workspace trends. The global network now
has more than 11,000 members, accounting for
individuals working as freelancers, in startups,
and even in full-fledged enterprises. In 2012, the
collective of Impact Hubs saw more than 400 new
startups founded and initiatives started, along
with more than 1,500 new full-time jobs created.
This number mirrors trends in new businesses
started annually. In the U.K. alone, a record number
of businesses have recently launched, rising nearly
14% in three years, from 440,600 in 2011 to 502,068
in 2013.
Along with new businesses, the number of
freelancers continues to increase. In the U.S.,
34% of the national workforce is doing freelance
work, accounting for roughly 53 million people. The
number of freelancers in the U.K. has grown 14%
in the past decade, with 1.4 million independents
working across all sectors. Across Europe, the
number of freelancers — which have come to be
dubbed
“ iPros, ”
independent professionals — has
increased 45% in 10 years, from 6.2 million in 2004
to 8.9 million in 2013, making it the fastest growing
group in the EU labor market.
At a systemic level, the Impact Hubs are
beginning to see more interest in collaboration
from governments, especially in the U.K. and
Canada. Two of the five Impact Hubs in England
have been opened with financial support from
local governments. The Westminster location
was launched with 40% equity from the City of
Westminster, and the recently opened Brixton
location opened as a pilot project with the Lambeth
Council. Across the pond in Canada, the Halifax
and Ottawa Impact Hubs are working with local
governments on piloting social impact bonds. Due
to the high levels of jobs created each year at
Impact Hubs, many local authorities are interested
in creating similar incubation spaces to foster even
more job creation.
Alongside contributing to increases in jobs,
businesses, and public-private partnerships,
the Impact Hub
’
s main mission is to create a
network of collaborators focused on making
positive impacts on the world — and they are
seeing this come true. In 2012, members reported
an average of 10 or more highly valuable new
connections made each year, solidifying the Impact
Left: Katerina Kropacova
Right: Lynton Pepper, Architecture 00
Left: Impact Hub Milan's dual
purpose storage and signage.
Right: Small teams work in a sunlit
top floor of Impact Hub Kings
Cross.
Hub
’
s mission. With these connections in place
throughout the network, the Impact Hub becomes
more than a place to work.
“ We ’
re moving away
from space at the center of our model to space as
an enabler of impact, ”
said Debbie So, Impact Hub
Islington
’
s Head of Partnerships. The global Impact
Hub network is now more focused on supporting
their membership base of entrepreneurs,
freelancers, and changemakers, who are working
at the edges of traditional work environments
and business culture, to make the impact they
desire to see at local and global levels, whether
they tap into the network in the physical or virtual
environments.
WORKS CITED
- Bachmann, Michael. “How the Hub Found
Its Center” Winter 2014. Stanford Social
Innovation Review.
- Baderman, James and Law, Justine.
“Jonathan Robinson” Everyday Legends:
The Ordinary People Changing Our World: The
Stories of 20 Great UK Social Entrepreneurs.
Heslington, York: WW, 2006. 102-07. Print.
- De Koven, Bernard. “The Coworking
Connection” 5 August 2013. Deep Fun.
- DeskMag.com. “The History of Coworking
Spaces in a Timeline” 2 September 2013.
- Dunsby, Megan. “UK Hits Record 500,000
New Businesses for 2013” 13 December 2013.
StartUps.co.uk.
- ImpactHub.net. “Impact Hub.” 2014.
- Kauffman.org. “Kauffman Index of
Enterpreneurial Activity Interactive”
4 September 2013.
- Matthews, Ben. “Freelance Statistics 2014:
The Freelance Economy in Numbers”
9 September 2014. BenRMatthews.com.
- Neuberg, Brad. “The Start of Coworking
(from the Guy that Started It)” 21 December
2014. CodingInParadise.org.
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