Building a Co-working Space? Tate Can Help You Manage Your Service Distribution

JESSUP, Md., Jan. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Co-working or shared office environments are becoming an ever more popular solution for businesses of all sizes – it's the ultimate in corporate customization. According to Deskmag's Global Coworking Survey, nearly 1.2 million people worldwide worked in a co-working space in 2017, with over 14,000 co-working spaces worldwide.

Industry leading companies like Regus, WeWork, and ServCorp are continuing to grow; utilizing both existing buildings and new construction alike to provide an à la carte solution to business professionals who might not want or need permanent office space (or a multi-year lease). And with customer needs ranging wildly, from WiFi access and a spot on a sofa, to a suite of offices and conference rooms complete with phone lines and a receptionist, and everything in-between, one of the biggest questions facing anyone looking to design and build a co-working space today is one of infrastructure integration and distribution.

How do you layout infrastructure for your shared office when, by definition, you don't know what the exact needs of your clients are going to be – What size space will they need? What power and data needs will they have? How long will they stay? All of these answers are unknown and in constant flux; with the generally high turnover rate seen in shared office environments, what works for today's customer might not be what works for tomorrow's.

Shared offices are often designed around an open layout with areas of shared desk workstations and, where private offices and conference rooms have been set up, it's often done using moveable partitions instead of permanent walls. Together, this allows for the space to be broken up and reconfigured in whatever manner fits the current needs of your customers, while also providing for higher office density, but leaves few options for traditional service distribution.

This power and data challenge tends to be met by running wire and cabling through the ceiling and then hanging it down freely to a pod of desks, or by laying it across the floor and covering it with tape or cord protectors. It's an effective and practical solution, but one that's inelegant and full of tripping hazards.

The most economical and efficient solution for your co-working environment is to use a raised access floor and underfloor services distribution (UFSD) system. Not only does the access floor allow for an even walking surface to be created, but when you combine the modular access floor and the resulting underfloor void, you create the perfect system through which to run your wire and cable. Utilizing UFSD will ensure that your co-working space becomes more flexible and reconfigurable; you can quickly and easily swap out or move underfloor modular plug-and-play power and cable boxes, ensuring the best fit for everyone in the space, wires are safely hidden, but easily accessible, and the best part is that you can achieve all of this without sacrificing aesthetics. With high-end access floor finishes such as wood and porcelain available, and the ability to create floorplans that minimize the traditional grid created by using an access floor, you can create a truly future proof shared office environment that is able to accommodate change quickly and efficiently.

SOURCE Tate Access Floors