The Hub
Being used to working in offices with plenty of colleagues (many of whom became friends over the years) and buzzing activity from 20 years in corporate Paris, I had little desire to work at home, alone. So, when I had finished retraining as an Interior Designer, I looked for a coworking space close to home. The closest was a commute away, a short commute at 25 minutes, but a commute nonetheless. And the space wasn’t all that appealing - very big and impersonal. There were either minuscule glass boxes that served as offices but looked like the reptile enclosures at the zoo, or huge open space plateaux for about 100 people who looked like robots. Not at all what I was looking for!
I started asking neighbors and local friends if they knew of any professionals with spare office space. Nobody knew of any, and several mentioned that what we really needed in the area was a coworking space… So, being me, I started researching how to create a coworking space, and met with people who had opened small, local coworking spaces to find out how they did it. Then I hired a consultant to help me work on the key deliverables of the project (market research and survey and hypotheses for the business plan based on purchasing the space).
The market research concluded that there was a demand for a local coworking space, and the business plan worked (I admit to being an Excel geek - what a powerful tool!). So I found myself en route to creating my own coworking space - which I named The Hub (‘Zee Ub’ when pronounced with a French accent, which I find amusing!).
The biggest problem was the actual space itself. I live in Sèvres, a close suburb of Paris with the Gare Saint Lazare a 25 minute train ride away. I moved from Paris when my sons were small to be able to send them to a bilingual school. Because of this proximity to Paris, real estate in Sèvres is rare and relatively expensive. I visited a few typical office spaces and found them seriously depressing: lacking in natural light and with highway views. Then a local Société Générale bank branch came up for sale. I found this quite ironic, as I had worked for the bank as a management consultant a few years back. The space was bright, south and west facing, with big arched windows. It was situated a 10 minute walk from home, and down the street from the Parc de Saint Cloud, one of the verdant ‘lungs’ of Paris. Opposite the space there is a supermarket, a chemist and a boulangerie, perfect for my future coworkers!
As soon as I visited the space I knew that I was going to turn it into The Hub. Its surface area was 100 meters squared (1076 square foot), about half the size I was looking for. But the location and the light were perfect, and I actually didn’t have much choice as I hadn’t found any other space I liked! The main problem was the safety deposit box room (la salle des coffres) - a reinforced concrete cube installed by the bank, with 18 inch thick walls, floor and ceiling. I designed the floor plan, making the most of the windows, and got builders to quote for the renovation work and the removal of the safety deposit box room - two builders said that this was possible, if expensive. So, having included building costs in the business plan and having ensured that the project was still viable, I made an offer to buy the space. After a quick and relatively easy negotiation, my offer was accepted (I think nobody else fancied tackling the salle des coffres). I was delighted, and set about completing my design.
Plan and photos of the space as a Société Générale bank branch
This was the plan of the space as a bank branch. The receptionist / bank teller sat in the entrance area (‘accueil’), then there were three offices along the corridor to the left. The safety deposit box room was to the right hand side (‘salle des coffres’). Behind the offices was a long corridor for staff, which led to the server room, tiny kitchen (cutely called ‘la tisanerie’ on the plan - the herbal tea area) and two toilets. Two of the windows and important interior space on the south facing wall were taken up with the air conditioning unit and an ATM. A third window, to the right of the plan where the safety deposit box room was, was bricked up.
I needed to recuperate as much space as possible and I wanted to make the most of the windows and natural light. I also wanted to separate the working area, as it needed to be quiet, from the socialising area. So I designed a Living Room (named en hommage to the Serge Gainsbourg song ‘Intoxicated Man’) with an open kitchen where the entrance area used to be. To do this, we took out the oversized air conditioning unit and the ATM to recuperate the space and the original windows, with permission from the Town Hall and from the Architects des Bâtiments de France*.
Here is the plan of The Hub as it is today (except the salle des coffres!)
I put the corridor in the working area on the side opposite the windows so that my coworkers and I could work closer to the natural light. I cut up the staff corridor to make a small video-meeting room, two ‘phone boxes’ and the technical server / storage room. I turned one toilet and la tisanerie into an office with a window onto the building’s courtyard (with permission from the other copropriétaires**), and the old server room into a shower room. And the salle des coffres was due to be a meeting room.
La salle des coffres: before - during - after
The main bone of contention during the building works, as expected, was the safety deposit box room. The builders tried to remove the whole cube - they even brought in a huge machine to pummel away at the concrete (I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it going up the steps into my beloved space - arrgghh). In the end, to the neighbors’ and to my relief, we decided just to remove the wall separating the room from the rest of the space, and to cut open a square to the window to let the light in. The bottom of this square is the right height to sit on and became a window seat - how to make the best of an unforeseen constraint !
In terms of decoration I wanted to keep it professional, yet cozy and welcoming. My friend Michele Landel, the fiber artist, designed The Hub’s logo as a round colour wheel in different blues. I took this as my starting point for the decoration of the space, using blues with yellow highlights, and the round shape. I tried to use local artisans as much as I could and when the budget permitted. For example the raw edge, chestnut wood bar top was made by Mano Paris, two artisans who are from Sèvres.
Overall, it was a wonderful project, and a great experience. The Hub opened on 2nd September 2019, and I am pleased to say that my coworkers, or Hubbers as I have taken to calling them, love working at The Hub. They often tell me that they are at their most productive there, as it really helps them to have other people working quietly nearby.
And, naturally, we all love to celebrate! Les bulles (bubbles) on a Friday evening is a frequent occurrence, celebrating birthdays, births, wins, new contracts and life in general! If you’re ever in The Hub’s general vicinity, call me and drop by for a coffee or a glass of bubbly on a Friday evening!
* Architectes des Bâtiments de France - whenever you are within a 500 meter perimeter of a classified historic building in France, and you want to change the exterior of your building, you have to submit your plans and elevations to these state architects to get their approval. Especially in Paris, as there are so many historic buildings, you are almost guaranteed to have to do this for any external changes to buildings (for example changing a window or external door). Mostly, people avoid doing this, as they are notoriously conservative. Many would say rightly so - as this is part of how the beauty of Paris is preserved.
** Copropriétaires - the co-owners of the building. If one of the co-owners wants to make a change to the building that could affect the other co-owners, permission in the form of a vote, has to be obtained.