Vienna – the city of coffee houses on the one hand, but also a modern, vibrant metropolis with an extremely diverse business landscape. In Austria’s capital, working in co-working spaces has a very long tradition: of course, it just wasn’t called that back then. But even famous artists, authors and cultural figures such as Helmut Qualtinger, Georg Danzer, Ernst Fuchs, Alfred Hrdlicka and Friedensreich Hundertwasser used to meet regularly to work in legendary Viennese coffee houses, such as Café Hawelka in the first district.
Today, there are numerous ‘co-working cafés’ in Vienna, equipped with functional furniture and all the infrastructure necessary for the modern working world. Susi Seidl is an events manager from Gmunden on Lake Traunsee – not exactly round the corner, Vienna is more than a hundred kilometres away. Nevertheless, she travels to the capital four times a week to set up her laptop in various co-working cafés: “At home, I have a lovely view of the lake from my living room, but what I completely miss there is the chance to exchange ideas with like-minded people – and to do so in as relaxed an atmosphere as possible. There are lots of creative people in the co-working café, and you get to know each other during work breaks, talk about projects and find out what others are up to. I think that’s brilliant. My acquaintances often end up being clients too, for example, people attending concerts or events that I organise – and that automatically makes them my best critics. That’s something very valuable that you can’t find either when you’re on your own or in an office where you’re simply surrounded by colleagues who share the same perspective.”
Demand for workspaces in co-working cafés is rising dramatically, and Vienna is regarded as a pioneer in Europe – almost 50 such venues have now sprung up there. But other European business hubs are following suit: in Germany, there are already several co-working cafés, particularly in Düsseldorf. One of them is the ‘Manko’ in the trendy Flingern district. It has two areas – a rear section, used almost exclusively for work, and a front section where the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed, with conversation and soft music. Pavlina Paskova and Frank Schüler are designers; they enjoy coming to ‘Manko’ to work on their projects together. “I love working in cafés,” says Pavlina Paskova, “they’re inspiring; people come and go, there’s lovely music playing and the atmosphere is always relaxed and pleasant.”
Florian Arndt is a self-employed IT consultant; he has previously worked in Vienna, is familiar with co-working cafés from there, and now lives in Düsseldorf too. He likes to go to the ‘Kaffeerösterei Tenten’ in the city centre on Oststraße. “What’s important to me is that there are power sockets, high-speed Wi-Fi, very good coffee, friendly people and a quiet, creative atmosphere.”
André Helf, CEO of the Collection Group, constantly monitors the market and knows that coffee and tea rooms are also very important structural elements for business centres: “In our business centres, clients from a wide range of industries meet in the communal areas, such as our coffee kitchens – for many, these are vital meeting places where they can take a break, have a chat and exchange ideas. We’re very aware of this, which is why the tasteful décor and spaciousness of our coffee kitchens are so important to us. They’re an essential part of our business centres – which also shows that co-working is becoming increasingly important in modern working environments these days.”
###