320
R. Bolici et al.
accommodate a small number of people (from 1 to 10); this size, while not contributing on the one hand to generating significant economies of scale, on the other hand,
it does favor the creation of communities.
The essential functional spaces within the various containers surveyed have been
traced back to four major categories: work spaces (meeting room, open space offices,
study room, conference room), service spaces (reception entrance, kitchen), spaces
for additional services (library, laboratory), and recreational spaces (refreshment
area, relaxation area, outdoor space). Starting from the analysis of the existing realities, a hierarchy of these functions has been articulated based on their diffusion,
which has allowed us to determine as open spaces of a coworking environment open
space offices (easily adaptable and flexible spaces) that allow the users to work inside
a large environment that stimulates collaboration, as opposed to a traditional office,
and meeting rooms (necessary to hold meetings without disturbing other coworkers). Given the prevailing informal nature of these platforms, the relaxation areas
and the refreshment areas (spaces equipped to encourage dialog between coworkers) are fundamental for the creation of an environment that favors socialization and
sharing. Complementary to these spaces are the study rooms and private offices, or
spaces intended exclusively for certain users, and the congress rooms structured to
host presentations and events. In a smaller number of cases, the presence of a room
equipped as a kitchen and spaces for library and laboratories was detected; in this
case, it is a hybrid coworking platform, with features more common to the Fab labs.
With respect to the theme of space management, it was found that the manner
is exclusively private, more than a quarter of the platforms analyzed adhere to a
network and in only 10% of the cases analyzed, in order to make use of the spaces,
a membership is required. Particularly, joining a network allows for the community
of a coworking environment to increase exponentially by creating an ecosystem of
relationships in which proposals are activated and contaminations develop in the
entrepreneurial and professional sphere, particularly at the level of freelancers and
small work teams. The advantages of belonging to a network are generally the use
of a brand, having basic advice available for management and presence on the media
and on social media, increasing the visibility and knowledge of the structure toward
possible coworkers present in the territory.
The subscription costs that a user incurs per year to use the spaces are on average
between e1000 and 3000; the peaks noted refer to platforms that do not adhere to
the network, since adherence to networks generally leads to price control.
To obtain a cross section of the analyzed realities and to provide a methodological direction for the design of coworking spaces, a comparative matrix has been
elaborated which has systemized the information concerning the functions with the
surfaces, the location, the types of buildings hosting these activities, the number of
users that can be hosted, network membership, and, finally, the annual cost of subscriptions. The reading of the matrix, consisting of four sections defined according
to the extension of the surfaces of the collaborative platforms and their geographical
location, has revealed that the spaces with reduced dimensions (0–250 m
2 ) find a
preferential position in central areas, peripheral areas, and in isolated contexts, within
R. Bolici et al.
accommodate a small number of people (from 1 to 10); this size, while not contributing on the one hand to generating significant economies of scale, on the other hand,
it does favor the creation of communities.
The essential functional spaces within the various containers surveyed have been
traced back to four major categories: work spaces (meeting room, open space offices,
study room, conference room), service spaces (reception entrance, kitchen), spaces
for additional services (library, laboratory), and recreational spaces (refreshment
area, relaxation area, outdoor space). Starting from the analysis of the existing realities, a hierarchy of these functions has been articulated based on their diffusion,
which has allowed us to determine as open spaces of a coworking environment open
space offices (easily adaptable and flexible spaces) that allow the users to work inside
a large environment that stimulates collaboration, as opposed to a traditional office,
and meeting rooms (necessary to hold meetings without disturbing other coworkers). Given the prevailing informal nature of these platforms, the relaxation areas
and the refreshment areas (spaces equipped to encourage dialog between coworkers) are fundamental for the creation of an environment that favors socialization and
sharing. Complementary to these spaces are the study rooms and private offices, or
spaces intended exclusively for certain users, and the congress rooms structured to
host presentations and events. In a smaller number of cases, the presence of a room
equipped as a kitchen and spaces for library and laboratories was detected; in this
case, it is a hybrid coworking platform, with features more common to the Fab labs.
With respect to the theme of space management, it was found that the manner
is exclusively private, more than a quarter of the platforms analyzed adhere to a
network and in only 10% of the cases analyzed, in order to make use of the spaces,
a membership is required. Particularly, joining a network allows for the community
of a coworking environment to increase exponentially by creating an ecosystem of
relationships in which proposals are activated and contaminations develop in the
entrepreneurial and professional sphere, particularly at the level of freelancers and
small work teams. The advantages of belonging to a network are generally the use
of a brand, having basic advice available for management and presence on the media
and on social media, increasing the visibility and knowledge of the structure toward
possible coworkers present in the territory.
The subscription costs that a user incurs per year to use the spaces are on average
between e1000 and 3000; the peaks noted refer to platforms that do not adhere to
the network, since adherence to networks generally leads to price control.
To obtain a cross section of the analyzed realities and to provide a methodological direction for the design of coworking spaces, a comparative matrix has been
elaborated which has systemized the information concerning the functions with the
surfaces, the location, the types of buildings hosting these activities, the number of
users that can be hosted, network membership, and, finally, the annual cost of subscriptions. The reading of the matrix, consisting of four sections defined according
to the extension of the surfaces of the collaborative platforms and their geographical
location, has revealed that the spaces with reduced dimensions (0–250 m
2 ) find a
preferential position in central areas, peripheral areas, and in isolated contexts, within