Co-working in Perth

I booked a Tour of the Spacecubed Co-working space in Perth . But what I didn't realize is there are two Spacecubed offices in St George's Terrace, Perth. The older office is at 45 St George's Terrace, in an old bank building (they have a meeting room in the old vault).

The newer is at 131St George's Terrace, about two blocks further West, in another ornate building. Number 45 was buzzing with activity, with people coming for meetings and others hard at work at their workstations.

There is the usual co-working setup, with a lounge area, for informal socializing (and work), rows of desks for work and some meeting rooms. The ideal such setup has a reception desk near the front door, which also have sight of the entire facility, so one person can keep an eye on things, much like the librarian at the front desk of a library.

There can be transparent screens (Space cubed has some glass partitions and other made of perforated sheet), which provide some partial privacy. As well as small private meeting rooms, the common area can be used for large events, with some people still sitting at their desks working.

A couple of features at Space Cubed I have not seen at other such places in Australia (and Sri Lanka)  are a Yammer site for members to congregate on-line and Community Membership for those who don't need office space, but want to be part of the community.

Number 131 is smaller, newer and less busy (there is a meeting this-evening to co-design the space. While I was there an economist turned up looking for space. This surprised me as I thought it was only web entrepreneurs who inhabited these places. But apparently other professionals are looking for low cost flexible space with a pool of services to hand (including web designers).

 Perhaps these co-working spaces will evolve into something like the old lawyers chambers, where individual professionals form a cooperative for office space and then ancillary services group up around this.