A new Christie and Bloor workspace is catering to Toronto's independent and mobile workers. Called
CO:WORK, the new space combines the flexibility of home, the sociability of a coffee shop and the structure and collaborative nature of an office.
The space is the brainchild of Torontonian Heidi McCulloch, who, after deciding to go independent after working for 20 years in advertising and communications, quickly found that she missed certain aspects of the office environment.
"Obviously working in the advertising field and communications there is so much about human feeling, human connection and human emotion," says McCulloch. "I needed the presence of people to stimulate me, to feel like I'm in an idea space. So I was missing those things."
But her interest isn't all personal. McCulloch is teaching and doing a master's at OCAD University, where she's been studying theories around productive collaborations. "I'd been thinking about how you can structure and build the kind of environment that can make collaboration happen in a productive way. So it's just super interesting to me form a theoretical perspective."
CO:WORK offers private, semiprivate and open works spaces in an industrial-chic aesthetic: tall ceilings, big windows, exposed brick walls, thick wood beams and polished concrete floors. CO:WORK members also have unlimited flexibility in how they use the space; membership packages range everywhere from 24-hour private office access to a pay-by-the-hour system for the more casual CO:WORK user.
Launched just over a month ago, CO:WORK already has a half-dozen users and lots of interest.
"All the members so far seem to be in the creative and design oriented fields," says McCulloch. "I love the fact that people just spontaneously introduce themselves and chitchat in the mornings."
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Heidi McCulloch, Founder, CO:WORK