Going to work should be an experience, observes Franquibel Lima, the global head of studios at WeWork, one of the biggest providers of flexible coworking spaces in the world. In this interview with Talking Architecture & Design, he shares his thoughts about WeWork’s evolving design strategies, the importance of localisation in designing workspaces, post-pandemic design dynamics, and adapting workspaces to meet new challenges as companies work to get their staff back into the office.

As a global workplace provider, WeWork delivers flexible, safe and inspiring spaces with a goal to deliver unmatched community experiences, says Lima. With a global footprint of over 750 locations including Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth in Australia, WeWork’s design strategy is based on localisation. While the functionality aspect is fairly consistent across all of their workplaces, every single building is local and every single experience that people have is local as well.

Lima explains that the localisation of workplace design goes beyond the aesthetics, to understanding local business cultures, what the building fabric is within the specific geographical context, and even aspects such as light and the local weather.

“We really try to make sure that it is as localised as possible in all dimensions, not just static,” he says.

Speaking about WeWork’s evolution, Lima says the company today caters to a spectrum of members from freelancers coming in just for one hour a day, all the way to Fortune 500 companies and large corporations taking up complete buildings – though they began with start-ups and small companies using their coworking spaces. Today WeWork designs for a much broader audience, which has changed the way they now design their buildings.

One significant change is that their design is now data driven, from business as well as human-centric perspectives. By listening to their members – both end users and decision-makers – WeWork learns and understands what's the best way for them to work, and helps them change the way they work within the same building or in different buildings based on their needs.

“If we are really engaging with the human-centric side of the experience that people have in offices, then we are more likely to be successful at it,” he explains.

About the post-pandemic work environment, Lima says WeWork was able to respond quickly to address the basic concerns of employees returning to work by creating safe workspaces. However, reimagining the workplace is constantly going to be a work in progress.

“What we found out is our portfolio of buildings and the way that we've designed them is really resilient, and that is a good basis for us to keep adapting the solutions that we offer to members.”

WeWork works with their members to understand their changing needs and adapts solutions to make sure they have the right infrastructure at any given point of time. For instance, a company may have employees coming in to work only three days a week, or 50% of people coming in five days a week. The space could also be a place where people come together to collaborate or meet clients. Lima says they have plenty of examples of members changing their infrastructure every three or six months to fit their requirements.

WeWork has a cross-functional group of people, with the in-house design team receiving feedback from the member experience team about how end users are experiencing their workspaces. This feedback loop allows the design team to rethink various design aspects, find new solutions and respond quickly.

“It's really important to acknowledge that to succeed, we're going to have to keep innovating,” says Lima about the future of the coworking sector.

“I think that the sector will grow and the people who will succeed are the ones who are committed to delivering the whole experience.

“It's about the right locations, having the right hospitality experience, having the right offering of amenities, and making sure that the basics of functionality are on point. When all of that comes together then I think we're succeeding. I think that's where the future will go.”

This article is a synopsis of Talking Architecture & Design – Episode 126: WeWork’s global head of studios, Franquibel Lima talks about the future of the office. To hear the whole podcast, click here.

Image: Supplied

Branko Miletic

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