Third places, spaces of a new kind with Olivier Durix, Managing Director of Bouygues Immobilier and Stéphane Bensimon, CEO of Wojo. At a time when the pandemic has shaken up our way of life, and in particular our way of working, third places are becoming increasingly popular because of their modern and disruptive dimension, which is totally in line with our times.
With the development of third places, the potential development of remote work is counted in billions, with a share dedicated to flexible work spaces at 1.5%. By 2030, it will be nearly 30%. As Stéphane Bensimon, CEO of WOJO, points out, coworking has seen its popularity grow considerably, particularly magnified by the health crisis. Flexibility is the key word in the development of these workspaces; a real combination of expectations and benefits for companies and employees. Companies are looking to reduce vacancy, make savings, "the cost of offices [...] second only to salaries", recruit and retain talent while also considering sustainable development and CSR issues, while for employees, concerns are focused on well-being at work.
WOJO, the result of a complementary alliance between ACCOR and BOUYGUES Immobilier, was developed from these new consumption patterns. In the world of hospitality, mixed-use, a development scheme at WOJO, deploys a strategy based on a more interesting return by optimising the location and surface areas, favouring the development of accommodation, office, coworking and common spaces, also in line with a sustainable development strategy.
This meaningful concept is aligned along three major lines: efficiency, by making economies of scale and playing on the complementary use of rooms and offices, cross-selling, and operational synergies, with optimised teams to operate at different times.
Olivier Durix of BOUYGUES Immobilier, underlines the growing ambition to offer a new residential experience through co-living, "[...] an observation of market friction, of an offer that is either weak, of poor quality or difficult to address" and which appears to be a real complement to real estate operations.
Targeting both long and short stay users, these spaces are real places of life and exchange. This mix of uses is based on the development of flats using a modular construction method, where the spaces are no longer solely dedicated to a single use, but can be fully modulated according to needs.
