Coworking promises to boost your creativity, offers valuable networking opportunities, and increases your productivity – but could there be some hidden health benefits as well?

It would appear so. Coworking brings individuals and businesses together in an environment like no other, resulting in a positive effect on both your physical and mental well being. In fact 70% of coworkers claim to feel healthier working in this way when compared to the conditions of working in a traditional office environment, and 60% are more relaxed at home since they have started coworking.

It makes sense. The standard 9-5 work week is counterproductive to good health. This type of sedentary existence is, in fact, killing us. Could coworking unlock a range of health benefits that typical office or home working environments simply cannot offer? Several scientific studies suggest it certainly can.

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Coworking started as a small, fringe movement of people who wanted to work independently, but within a community. A decade later, that movement has become a rapidly-growing global industry that’s entering the mainstream.

A new coworking forecast by Emergent Research predicts that the number of coworking spaces worldwide will grow to 26,000 in 2020 from 11,000 this year. That's 3,000 more than the number of Starbucks stores worldwide in 2015. In that same time, coworking membership is expected to nearly quadruple to 3.8 million members from 976,000 today.

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You might dream of a big corner office someday, but if you're running a startup, a co-working space might be your best option right now. Not only does it save crucial cash, but you'll also be immersed in a community of creators and innovators and learn from your peers.

According to Jamie Russo, executive director of the Global Workspace Association and founder of Enerspace Coworking, key benefits of co-working include "flexibility, community, location convenience, proximity to innovation, or just an office that's better designed than what you could do with your own resources."

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WeWork opened its doors in Hong Kong for the first time on Thursday as the US co-working startup continues its expansion into Asia. The company’s initial foothold in the Asian financial centre occupies nearly 100,000 square feet (9,290 square metres) across eight stories at Phoenix Properties’ newly redeveloped Tower 535 commercial complex on Jaffe Road in Causeway Bay. WeWork’s Hong Kong debut in the grade A office tower comes just two months after the New York-based flexible office provider opened its first Asian location in Shanghai.

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Your sense of fulfillment in the workplace is impacted profoundly by your surrounding office environment, your community of professionals, and your ability to be productive. For businesses operating in coworking communities, an extra challenge lies in choosing spaces that are conducive to both serious work and casual networking. The goal for employers is to offer employees an environment that’s welcoming. And that means the goal for coworking communities is to offer offices that are designed for all member businesses, and at the same time evoke the host’s brand message.

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Co-working fosters a diverse business ecosystem, where ideas intermingle and companies can easily collaborate. Proximity and exposure to other co-workers in various sectors is a particularly valuable benefit for small companies and startups that don’t have teams in-house to tackle their ambitious projects. Spaces was built on the idea that success breeds more success. Its mission is to redefine the way work is done by cultivating a community of thinkers, achievers and imagineers. Founded in Amsterdam, Spaces brings creative, free-spirited, European designed co-working to America, appealing to everyone from the suit-and-tie Fortune 500 to T-shirt-clad freelancers.

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When shared-office-space giant WeWork Cos. sought fundraising in 2014, it told investors that it planned to open 14 locations with dormlike residences dubbed “WeLive” by the end of 2016, accounting for 12% of the company’s revenue.

Now, the company is on track to have just two by the end of 2016. Another, in Seattle, isn’t expected to open until at least 2018, and no others have been publicly disclosed.

Six years after it was founded in a small space in Manhattan, WeWork has amassed a valuation of $16 billion, placing it among the world’s most valuable startups.

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“Co-living,” the idea of young professionals living in dorm-like surroundings, has been billed as the hot new trend in housing.

WeWork, the $16 billion coworking startup, is reportedly betting that its co-living venture, WeLive, will provide the company with 21 percent of its revenue by 2018. Other startups like Common are trying to build an entire business out of the idea. But today, co-living is far from revolutionary.

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Fuigo, a design-focused company founded by the brothers who helm the textile company Fortuny, recently launched an upscale co-working space. The space, located on New York’s Park Avenue South, is the only co-working facility dedicated to interior designers, allowing Fuigo to cater to their specific needs. In fact, along with the opening of the space, Fuigo launched the new tech platform that the in-house designers can use to manage their businesses. Currently, 12 designers work out of the office, but that count is expected to rise to 150 by the end of 2018. And when it does, Fuigo will have more resources in place to help them succeed. “[The Fuigo resource library] is fully staffed by a ‘resource oracle,’” said co-founder Maury Riad. “It is a critical resource for designers who are constantly in need of product samples, brochures and literature so they can efficiently complete their projects. When complete, it will have product from over 1,500 vendor."

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