The advent of hybrid working has led to the desertion of office buildings in many of the world’s major cities. Startups like UseSpace are trying to remedy this situation by organizing surprising events in these now underused spaces.
Based in Amsterdam, this Dutch company connects real estate developers with largely underutilized office space and organizations in need of space. The aim is to create hybrid buildings capable of offering different uses.
With this in mind, UseSpace teamed up with EDGE Workspaces, a subsidiary of office operator EDGE, to rethink the organization of EDGE Stadium on weekends. The 29,000 square-meter building, located near Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium, is virtually empty when office workers leave for the weekend.
UseSpace and EDGE Workspaces invited the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra to hold rehearsals there. This musical ensemble, consisting of 80 instrumentalists, has been meeting every Friday evening since September at EDGE Stadium to practice compositions by Debussy, Giacomo Puccini, and Tchaikovsky.
At first glance, this rehearsal space may seem ill-suited to the needs of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, but Caecilia Groot, president of the organization, feels it has proved its worth. “We are pleasantly surprised to be able to rehearse in the atrium of EDGE Stadium on Friday evenings. The atmosphere and facilities are great, and the acoustics remarkably good. The fact that the building’s tenants and nearby residents can come and listen to our rehearsal is a nice addition too for everyone,” she said in a statement.
A shifting landscape
Since its creation, UseSpace has forged similar partnerships with various organizations. The People for People foundation uses a vacant room in the Europlaza building to store its equipment, for example, while the Vrijwilligers Centrale Amsterdam association uses one of the offices in the Amsterdam headquarters of Colliers, a corporate real estate consultancy, to hold its annual “mix and match” event. Currently, UseSpace enables organizations to find empty space in nine office buildings across the Dutch capital.
Other startups are following its example, thinking of ways to create hybrid buildings that continue to be used outside normal office hours. The rise of remote working has accentuated this need for renewal in commercial real estate. Companies are increasingly wary of leasing premises that will not be used to their full capacity. In September, for example, Meta reversed its decision to rent two office buildings in the heart of London for its employees. As a result, it had to pay a penalty of £149 million (around €172 million) to the landlord, British Land, according to the Guardian.
This phenomenon is affecting several of the world’s major cities, including Paris, London, San Francisco, New York, and Tokyo. The McKinsey consulting firm estimated in a study, reported by Bloomberg, that remote working could reduce the value of office buildings by $800 billion by 2023. To cope with this new reality, real estate developers need to think about ways to reimagine offices so that they are more than just workspaces.