Tom Evans, director of Audience Group, at the newly opened Christie Spaces. Photographer: Liam Kidston.
It was once all about closed doors with a reception area, a lunch room and perhaps, if you were lucky, a nice view. But now the very idea of the office workplace in Brisbane is being turned on its head.
More an evolution than a revolution, technological and social change has kickstarted the transformation of traditional office spaces. A wide range of flexible workspaces has sprung up across the city, offering everything from high-end serviced offices for established businesses to creative co-working hubs for startups and small enterprises.
The common factors in this new era are flexible leasing terms, the sharing of facilities and a sense of community, on top of the obvious cost benefit, which varies according to what models flexible workspace providers use.
Also, any divide in the past has now been blurred, with co-working becoming more corporate and serviced offices more trendy.
While tech-savvy co-working providers such as River City Labs, Fishburners, Little Tokyo Two and Lightspace continue to flourish and cater for the small and creative end of the sector, national and overseas flexible workplace corporations have also expanded.