Wired News: Monster Fueled by Caffeine on a startup that works out of a coffee shop.
After a false start with ‘hot desking’ in the 90’s freely available wifi, laptops and cellphones really do mean that in some case you can work anywhere. In this case, history has come full circle with some of the biggest institutions in the world, such as Lloyd’s insurance, having been started in 18th century coffee houses.
Increasingly I am meeting people, that like myself would rather work out of a coffee shop than some anonymous cube hell that is the staple of most US work environments. I have a friend who is looking to buy a coffee house in San Francisco as space for his startup, whilst keeping it selling coffee to the public.
From an architectural standpoint I see this as the perfect rebellion. Unlike coffee houses, office space does not have to be designed to be attractive to hang out in and as such the vast majority of office space in America is a thoughtless committee designed waste of money devoid of any soul.