Hi Sid, Thought it would be worth sharing my "quiet room" story. Hopefully can add something to all the wonderful diversity of points that have been made.
I started my space after visiting several coworking-type spaces, one of which was "The Office" in Santa Monica, which is really more of a writers' space than a coworking space. The Office is pretty much library silent, with single-person desks surrounding the room all facing toward the center. It's completely different from a library because you look towards everyone else and so feel the energy of the concentrated work. It was energizing and focusing (and maybe guilt provoking if you thought about doing something other than working). Felt to me like a sanctuary a bit, too. I wanted a room like that in my coworking space, so I christened a quiet room. The quiet room was always the least crowded room in the space, which didn't bother me because the other two rooms weren't full and there were a couple of members who always worked there. Then those members approached me and said they wished it wasn't a quiet room, because they like to talk, and the only reason they work in there is because it's a nice room. It was changed to a "provisionally quiet room" where anyone working there can say they need quiet and everyone has to honor it. The room was full the next day. Almost my entire coworking space is quiet anyway, so people feel like every room is a kind of quiet room. A few years after visiting The Office and more than a year into having my own coworking space, I visited Coloft, also in Santa Monica. Coloft blew me away. There was the opposite of any quiet space. It seemed as though every table had a group actively working together talking, buzzing, collaborating. You could do quiet work if you wanted, but not without headphones and a skill for tuning people out. Coloft is not a place for a quiet room. Maybe a sound-proof booth for important calls. The energy again was contageous, but this time in a very different way. The buzz and sense of collaboration and activity in the space felt alive and thriving. I wanted a Coloft room in my coworking space! So now we're talking about having a Noisy Room instead of a quiet room. I get a lot of members who are very quiet. Not because they want to be, but rather because they think it's the vibe of the place and they wouldn't want to disturb other workers. Every room is a quiet room not because people don't want to talk, but because they think no one else wants them to talk. Well by no no one else does want them to talk, because it's been that way long enough to feel like it's right. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice environment and the people who are members really like the space. And there's a lot of socializing and collaborating. Just quiet and conscious of others in the space. I still want a quiet room. But first we need our noisy room. So what are the lessons? I guess two lessons have already been said: First, what kind of room really does depend on your members (my members don't really want or need the kind of room I was so attracted to at The Office and wanted my members to want; nor do they want the kind of noisy collaborative space like Coloft that I also want them to want; but there are a hell of a lot of people who do want The Offices and Colofts, they're just not at my space). The second lesson is kind of the opposite: It depends on the kind of members you want. The mantra that you should find out what your members want is great up to a point, but if you have a vision of something special you want to facilitate (as long as there's some community out there within reach of your space that wants it too), you might want to actively ignore what your members want and create the right kind of space for the community you want (this isn't to disagree with Alex's oft repeated and clearly correct point that you should try to find and build that community before spending the money to build the space for them and then to sustain it while it remains unfilled). I probably don't ever want a space full of entrepreneurs trying to build the next great thing (though it would be fun to be a part of that), and so as much as I like the energy of Coloft, if I built a space like that and it was a success, I'd probably always be a bit of an outsider. I've lost members--and failed to get members--because the space wasn't quiet enough, and I've failed to get members because the space wasn't "actively collaborative" enough. No space is the best space for everyone. Lesson three has also already been said: It's all--in my opinion--an experiment, and an experiment where the right mix is changing all the time. So the more you can find a way to learn and adapt as you create your space--and even after you've created just the right space--the better. The biggest blunders I've seen in coworking happened because people spent a lot of money to create just want they were sure everyone else would want and need (and often with good reason), and it was lost money that could have been used to keep them in business for the extra few months they might have needed to succeed. (But then, maybe the biggest successes were the few who did the same thing but were lucky enough to make enough right bets.) If you're not aiming for that one-in-ten-thousand coworking space recipes that that shoots you to the top of the dog heap, though, my money's on keeping it flexible and waiting to see what you need before you spend a lot building what you may not need. Just as an aside, the room there's clearly the most need for in our space is neither a quiet room nor a noisy room, but a quiet room for noisy people. We could really use a half-dozen or so one or two person meeting rooms for people to be temporarily noisy but not be disturbed by--or worry about disturbing--other noisy people when they have those important business calls. Will On Jan 30, 3:44 pm, Sidi <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Coworkers, > I am relatively new to the group, but have a question I have been > meaning to ask, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to > introduce myself. > > Anyways, I am running a coworking space in Cambridge MA, called "C3", > and am designing its future expansion. My question revolves around the > topic of "quiet" space: from your experience are they necessary? > Necessary might be a strong word, but if just 'useful', can you > describe what it needs to have from your experience? Does it need to > be absolutely quiet - so an acoustically enclosed room (i.e. with > floor to ceiling walls - which could be glass - and doors to access > it), or does simply have a designated space called "quiet room/area" > where people aren't supposed to talk do the trick? > > Thanks so much, > > Sidi -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
