“We’re not constructing a playground for teenagers,” say founders of Fosbury & Sons

The founders of Fosbury & Sons clarify to Dezeen how their fast-growing roster of areas supply a extra “grown-up” and personalised tackle co-working than these of main opponents like WeWork.

Established in 2016 by Stijn Geeraets and Maarten Van Gool, Fosbury & Sons has opened a sequence of co-working areas throughout the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Brussels.

The corporate has not too long ago gone worldwide, opening a canal-side department in Amsterdam, and has plans to launch an additional three areas by the tip of this yr – successful that the founders put right down to their sturdy “dialogue” with every property’s setting and occupants.

The foyer of Fosbury & Son’s Amsterdam department inside a 19th-century hospital

“What you see at WeWork is sweet and I believe we are able to exist subsequent to one another, however in case you’re in a WeWork, the areas in Amsterdam type of look the identical in Berlin,” Geeraets and Van Gool informed Dezeen in an interview.

“Each [Fosbury & Sons] location seems totally different. It is based mostly on the unique constructing, it is based mostly on town we’re in. So it will get persona from the constructing and the individuals working in it.”

“It is an train in being humble and open to what town and placement provides us, as an alternative of forcing your self right into a framework. And understanding the wants of the opposite get together – subsequently it’s good to hear,” they added.

“WeWork is lots of shouting. When individuals shout, they aren’t listening.”

The co-working firm’s inaugural property in Antwerp, fitted with luxe lighting fixtures and artwork items

Geeraets and Van Gool additionally assume the delicate aesthetic of their areas – that are usually decked out with bespoke furnishings, dramatic lighting fixtures and up to date artworks – helps set them other than the bean luggage and ping-pong tables seen in different co-working places of work.

“We’re not constructing a playground for teenagers, we’re constructing a working atmosphere for mature, grown-up human beings to do their job,” they added.

“The way forward for work environments shouldn’t be open-plan”

Geeraets and Van Gool went on to debate how they converse extensively with potential members of every new Fosbury & Sons location to get a transparent image of the assorted methods through which they work.

The pair additionally intently think about what they describe because the “4 primary capabilities of the mind: particular person work, collaborating, centered work – actually diving deep right into a matter – and relaxation. The mind must relaxation”.

“It is like a date, you actually wish to get to know one another. In any other case, the answer can be off and the proposal can be distant from what they take into consideration,” stated Geeraets and Van Gool.

The pair additionally really feel that open-plan places of work, which have been extensively adopted, do not work in each context.

“The way forward for work environments shouldn’t be open-plan. It is actually about attending to the dialogue, on a person and crew foundation,” the stated.

Homely sitting areas characteristic in one in every of Fosbury & Sons’ Brussels places of work

Because of this, each department options a mixture of personal places of work, closed-off cubicles, and sprawling lounges dotted with plush sofas the place people can casually work and haunt all through the day.

Changing into accustomed to shoppers additionally helped Geeraets and Van Gool guarantee they’ve the correct mix of pros in Fosbury & Sons properties.

Fosbury & Sons units up Amsterdam co-working house inside 19th-century hospital

“We do not wish to be a design ghetto, or a tech ghetto or startup ghetto – creativity arises once you get issues collectively from totally different locations and you may join the dots,” they added.

“Whether or not it is a lawyer, or monetary man or company promoting vacuum cleaners, that truly does not matter. It is a type of mindset, the emotional intelligence that the individuals of the corporate have.”

“You need to settle for it is going to by no means be completed”

Loads of analysis was additionally required earlier than doorways have been thrown open to the inaugural Fosbury & Sons department in Antwerp.

Coming collectively in what they describe as an “atelier-like” course of, Geeraets and Van Gool spent 18 months assembly, travelling and drafting concepts to consolidate their idea of the corporate.

Geeraets, specifically, wished to create one thing that was removed from the grim, light-starved places of work the place he had labored prior to now, “consuming espresso out of a plastic cup”.

One other Fosbury & Sons house in Antwerp will open this yr

“We had one thing in thoughts, however we did not know what it was – it wasn’t clear,” they defined, “it was about visiting locations, discovering stability between totally different merchandise, taking a look at service stage, house wants, design, budgets, earnings prices.”

However regardless of having the “constructing blocks” to Fosbury & Sons, the duo believes there’s at all times room for enchancment within the trio of areas which can be set to open in 2020.

One can be set inside a former warehouse in Amsterdam’s Westerdok neighbourhood, and one other property can be in Antwerp. The third department can be situated on the port of Valencia, Spain.

“You begin evaluating what might be higher, what do we now have to do otherwise – it is a course of that can be occurring and on and on,” they concluded.

“You need to settle for that it’s going to by no means be completed and that it’s going to by no means be good. And it does not should be too good.”