The real boom of shared offices erupted in the 21st century, with the digital world. But we can find the origins of the coworking space in the 90’s, and even way before in the 15th century.
Coworking spaces offer a place for members to share, cooperate and help each other. This is a real resource to expand ones network. At the beginning, these spaces welcomed more freelancers, but now a lot of companies are relying on coworking for more of their employees. The world of work is changing, and coworking forms part of this innovation.
THE FIRST ORIGINS
The word “coworking” is pretty new, but its origins go back a very long way. Indeed, we could already find some collaborative spaces in the 15th century. Those places were artist’s studios, where artists masters, manufacturers and trainees worked together. Like an incubator, the idea of those coworking space was to collaborate on one mutual project and create a master-piece.
THE EARLY STAGES OF COWORKING
The first shared office, regarded as the precursors of what we call today coworking space is the C-Base. This hackerspace was born in 1995 in Berlin, created by an organization of computer science professionals. The idea of the C-Base was to work in the same spot to share resources and experiences.
BERNIE COVEN, FATHER OF COWORKING
The first time people heard the word “coworking” was in 1999. The American game designer Bernie Coven invented this term to describe a method to work together as equals. By extension, this also means a spot which stimulates collaboration in an NICT’s environment.
SAN FRANCISCO, PIONEER OF THE REAL COWORKING
The first real coworking space was created in 2005 in San Francisco by a software engineer, called Brad Neuberg. By this time he was working for a startup but wanted to find a way to feel independent but also work in a space with all the amenities he needed as well as a community. So, he opened the Hat Factory. The first coworking space was born.
THE PHENOMENON SPREADED
Since 2005 and the opening of the Hat Factory, coworking spaces started to pop-up in a lot of places across the USA and Europe. And now you can cowork from all over the globe. Some big companies, like Impact Hub or WeWork dominate the market but there are also plenty of independent shared offices where you can work, with all the same amenities. Moreover, with the trend of digital nomadism, you can now find a bunch of coworking spaces alongside tropical beaches, to enjoy a perfect work-life balance.
