The Office That Feels Like a Hotel

Common Ground Studio has built a reputation on refusing to let commercial interiors look like commercial interiors, and its Robertson Quay coworking space for Nomad is the clearest statement of that approach yet. Walk in and the first thing you notice is what is missing: no exposed ductwork, no polished concrete floor, no row of identical standing desks. Instead there is a reception desk in dark walnut, a lounge with upholstered banquettes, and lighting pitched low enough that most first-time visitors ask if the space is actually a hotel lobby.

• The studio applied hospitality design, not just furniture, to a coworking space.
• Staff greet members by name; meeting rooms are named, not numbered.
• Higher-cost finishes were justified by member retention, not just looks.

Borrowing the hospitality playbook

Founder Priya Sharma says that reaction is exactly the point. "People spend more waking hours in a workplace than almost anywhere else, and for a long time the design of those spaces just accepted that they had to look institutional," she says. "We wanted to test whether a coworking space could borrow the hospitality playbook wholesale, not just in the furniture but in how the whole place is run."

That hospitality logic extends past the interior. Staff greet members by name at a desk that looks more like a hotel check-in than a front-of-house counter. Meeting rooms are named rather than numbered. A small pantry area does espresso rather than instant coffee, a detail Sharma says came directly from client feedback during an earlier, more conventional project.

The cost trade-off

The trade-off, Sharma admits, is cost. Upholstered banquettes and brass detailing carry a higher price tag than laminate and steel, and the studio had to make a case to Nomad's founders that the difference would pay for itself in member retention. A year in, occupancy figures suggest it has.