Collaborating to create the best places to live and work
Gloucester Services
Any motorway service area that can blend in with the countryside so well you can barely remember the horrendous jam you were sat in on the M5, and that offers up a host of fresh, healthy, locally produced food and drink, is worthy of a spot on the Collaborators list. Westmorland Family has created two of these MSAs – Tebay in Cumbria is the other – which work with the countryside, not against it.
London’s Royal Docks
A good example of cultural placemaking. A new delivery board is being put together with a brief for the whole of the Royal Docks to include Millennium Mills, E16. The Greater London Authority and London Borough of Newham are working with developers including Lipton Rogers, Igloo, Carillion and Ballymore to bring forward a combined regeneration of this vast swathe of industrial land.
Workspace Group
Workspace Group has more than 80 properties across London providing collaborative workspace for more than 4,000 companies. Networking between those tenants is a key element of its offer, with more than 300 events hosted yearly.
WeWork
Is this US company the king of collaborative working? The popularity of its workspace has seen it go from zero to hero, with a capital value ballooning from $355m (£268m) to $10bn in a little over a year. Its take on collaboration has boomed in London too, building a 1m sq ft portfolio in less than two years. But is its popularity waning?
Olympicopolis
A cultural and higher education quarter on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, E15, that is bringing together world-class universities and cultural and performing arts institutions. Alongside a collaborative approach to design, the teams behind the project are working on a shared digital strategy.
Central Research Laboratory
Central Research Laboratory provides the physical product (or “hardware”) for start-ups with inspiring workspace, prototyping lab, investment and mentoring, and helps them navigate the complex world of manufacturing in the Far East. Based at The Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, west London, CRL is the product of collaboration between U+I and Brunel University. Around 50% of CRL’s start-ups are Brunel graduates.
The Collective
The Collective first brought us a new approach to shared living for students, then began delivering innovate spaces for businesses and start-ups to come together – it now houses the PiLabs team and its cohorts in its Bloomsbury Square property.
Second Home
The brainchild of David Cameron’s former tech adviser, Rohan Silva, Second Home is east London’s best-known shared working space. After bringing together techies, entrepreneurs and investors in the UK, Silva will open his first overseas branch in Lisbon in October. Lisbon boasts one of the hottest emerging tech scenes in the world.
Derwent London and the Office Group
A collaborative workspace provider teaming up with one of the coolest developers in town to make sure it has the best space to offer its client base. Meet the Office Group and Derwent London – a marriage made in heaven. Two design-led businesses working together to give the people what they want: appealing and efficient workspace.
British Land and the Royal College of Art
British Land and the Royal College of Art have teamed up to challenge students to find creative solutions to development opportunities across BL’s portfolio. BL says the Live Project Architecture Programme reflects its understanding of the insights designers can bring to their developments to create places people want to live, work and play.
For the second year in a row, a public body has been awarded Estates Gazette’s Collaborators Award. Click here to find out the winner.
- POLITICAL PARTNERSHIPS The local authorities, politicians, councillors and companies whose partnerships caught the eye of this year’s judges.
- TECH TEAMS The top partnerships using technology to improve the built environment
- SOCIAL SUPERHEROES Working together need not only happen inside the workplace, as these collaborative efforts show
- REAL RELATIONSHIPS The joint efforts driving change in the property industry
