Connecting people, inspiring great ideas, and getting a better understanding of creating enterprises of different forms and sizes are features that make Naked Hub the communal workspace of the future.
“With any space, you should be attracted to it,” says Grant Horsfield, chairman of Naked Group, which owns Naked Hub. “It should be a space that you inherently feel you want to go to, like your own living room. It has this comfortableness. It just makes you feel at peace and at ease.”
Such an outlook has its roots in Horsfield’s upbringing in South Africa, where he grew up surrounded by nature. And when he first moved to Shanghai, he aspired to the tranquillity of the great outdoors.
In 2007, he created Naked Retreats to help city-dwellers get away from their daily drudgery. Creating such an escape was a solution to a problem that he had long recognised.
“Everything I do in business firstly must solve a problem. I actually believe that drives all entrepreneurs. They’re trying to solve all of the problems which are a personal need,” says Horsfield.
As his organisation grew rapidly so did the number of employees; there are currently 2,200, including 50 architects and 50 software engineers, working under the Naked brand. But he noticed that staff did not stay at their desks, or what he refers to as “real estate”. The use of mobile phones had altered the way they work.
This troubled Horsfield; money was being wasted on office amenities and electricity with no one around.
“It was fundamentally flawed. I started to wonder how much commercial real estate is actually underutilised. And we keep building more, as if the world needs more. It should be used efficiently. And that’s what the shared economy does,” he says.
Horsfield is based in Shanghai where he lives with his wife and two young daughters. His wife is originally from Hong Kong and the couple wanted to do something in the city.
Naked Hub in Sheung Wan is the group’s first space in Hong Kong and construction has proceeded at a frantic pace. But dealing with the local government has at times proved difficult.
“[Building] regulations are challenging here,” Horsfield says. He wanted to knock through a floor to create a lightwell between two storeys. Getting approval took a long time.
Horsfield’s own contractor from mainland China whom he brought in to work on his Hong Kong projects also faced challenges. The construction workers had difficulty following local regulations which stipulate that drilling can only be done during off-hours.
“They found it very hard in Hong Kong, not having a relationship with their neighbours,” Horsfield says.
Naked Hubs are popping up in various cities across East Asia including Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, Singapore and Jakarta.
Hong Kong’s second Naked Hub will open at the end of September a short distance from the first one, while plans to open a third location in Sai Ying Pun are already in the works.
There has been recourse to some engineering ingenuity to improve the environment. In Sheung Wan, a wall filled with plants has been set up to pump more oxygen into the workspace, and help remove particles known to cause respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. More oxygen in the air means greater productivity.
But there is also a challenge in persuading people of the benefits of working in a communal space.
“It is so hard for people to understand that they don’t need their own space. A locker suffices and is perfectly fine. But technology is going to change everything again,” Horsfield says.
The South African has a bigger vision for his company.
“The future is managing whole buildings. There will be huge communities under one platform that can share with and help each other. So the revolution of what we’re doing is that 95 per cent of the market thinks co-working is wrong. It’s actually a huge opportunity. That’s going to change the world,” he says.
(Photo: Berton Chang)
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Sharing is caring.
