Coworking Space Design – How to co-create and learn from your users (The Daftar)

This 2019 Coworking Europe presentation by Vandita Purohit of The Daftar examined how workspace design could support community engagement. The deck presented the process from a founder’s perspective, beginning with the need to define the intended community, identify what the surrounding city required and clarify what would drive the community. It then addressed the selection of a target audience through its demographics and expectations. The presentation recommended speaking directly with prospective users before design decisions were finalised, then bringing the resulting input into discussions with the architect and design team. It stressed attention to details and their incorporation into the finished workspace. The concluding framework described space design as a combination of the founder’s perspective, user expectations, designer input, functionality and defining details. Rather than presenting market statistics or measured outcomes, the slides outlined a participatory approach to coworking-space development in which founders, users and design professionals contributed to the design process. The deck therefore treated physical space as an outcome of community definition, user consultation, professional design work and functional planning.

Key findings

• The design process began by defining the intended community, the city’s needs and the factors driving that community.
• The deck advised founders to identify their target audience through demographics and an understanding of what prospective users wanted.
• Prospective users were to be consulted before founders worked with architects and design teams on the workspace.
• The final design framework combined the founder’s perspective, user expectations, designer input, functionality and defining details.

Presented by Vandita Purohit, The Daftar, at Coworking Europe 2019