On the importance of taking walls down
Office Nomads started the process of removing a troublesome wall in our space. For us, this is not just the removal of a physical wall, but a social barrier that has been perplexing us for some time now. Check out the video below on the first step we took towards taking walls down in our space.
No more walls from Office Nomads on Vimeo.
Again, taking this wall down is more than just to complete another successful construction project at the office. We're taking this wall down because:
Coworking spaces are not about walls. In fact, most coworking spaces, ours included, have as few walls as possible. Walls (cubicle or otherwise) separate us from one another and create barriers to meeting each other. This wall had only served to separate some of our members from one another, so we took it down.
Walls = isolation. The majority of our members come to our space to get away from walls that isolate them from the rest of their community. We found that even on days where the rest of our space was brimming with coworkers, the closed-door room in our space rarely saw much traffic. No one wanted to be isolated back there, as it meant they missed out on the buzz and energy happening in the rest of the space. Watching people sardine themselves next to one another while there was plenty of available space in the back room only encouraged us to take that sucker out.
Natural light is awesome! This separated room didn't get nearly as much natural light as the rest of our office, making it a much less desirable area to work in. So we knocked that sucker down and let the light flood in!
We are only partway finished the project and are excited to take the next step (reframing, finishing, etc.). We'll keep you posted!