Creating workspaces of the future

By Natalie Khoo

/ The Edge Property Malaysia |

July 2, 2017 4:50 PM SGT

During weekdays, most working adults spend about eight hours a day at work, amounting to 40 hours a week — almost half of our waking time is spent in the office. For that amount of time, is it too much to ask for a working environment that makes us feel great and more productive?

One can sit in the lounge area to work. (Images by Colony Space Asia)

“When you ask people what kind of office they would like to work in, a very common answer is the Google office! And why is that so? Because offices like Google’s offer a good working environment. Some of the Google offices around the world feature playgrounds in the building, different themed meeting rooms, nice cafeterias, and even slides and poles for employees to get from one floor to another.

“But if you have a small team, it makes no economic sense to bring in facilities like a gym or café. So, this is where I see an opportunity to build a great working environment to address the needs of this group of people,” executive director of Colony Space Asia Timothy Tiah shares with TheEdgeProperty.com.

Tiah is a well-known name in the world of social media, especially in Malaysia. He was the chief operating officer of Netccentric Ltd, a digital media company that he co-founded in 2006 before taking a step back from the active management of the company to start on a new venture last year. Netccentric is the parent company of a few subsidiaries such as global blog advertising community NuffNang, social media advertising company ChurpChurp, and mobile blogging application Dayre. He remains as a director, adviser and shareholder of the company.

Tiah is also a popular blogger who often writes about his family life, personal interests which include gadgets and sports, and life in general. Many have been trying to figure out what Tiah’s next venture was. After embarking, in a rather secretive manner, on the new project for about eight months, Tiah finally reveals what he has been working so passionately on — a shared workspace or co-working space called Colony. The first Colony will be in Kuala Lumpur city centre and is set to open its doors on July 15 with the official launch on July 27.

Tiah: I hope Colony raises the bar of what an office should be like. (Photo by Low Yen Yeing/TheEdgeProperty.com)

A lifestyle workspace

The first Colony spans 18,000 sq ft and is located at Vipod Business Centre on Jalan Kia Peng. It took Tiah a lot of research and “hunting” before he found this space.

“The space was an existing serviced office but I found out that it wasn’t doing too well. So, I went over and spoke to the landlord to propose a deal to him,” recalls Tiah. The landlord agreed to lease the space to him as well as to inject some money (fit-out cost) into the company, Colony Space Asia, on a profit-sharing basis.

To date, the company has spent some RM5 million including the funds the landlord has put in for renovations. “I also raised some money from several investors of Netccentric who told me they are in on any new business venture I am going into,” Tiah says with a laugh.

But why move into the business of shared or co-working spaces? Tiah believes this is the workspace of the future. He notices that people often associate work with sacrifices they have to make.

“We sacrifice a lot of things when we go to work. For example, if you ask me, ‘do you work out during the weekdays?’ the normal answer would be, ‘I have no time’. So why do you have to sacrifice your time for work all the time?”

And so, he asked what a working person wants in their day-to-day work — from how they commute to offices to what kind of meals they eat.

“In some offices, you put a Nintendo Wii or an Xbox with a really cool pool table and some beanbags and that is termed ‘cool’. Colony is nothing like that. These games rooms, people don’t even use them — they are just white elephants. It is not about that cool pool table or that gaming room but about a new work lifestyle,” Tiah remarks.

He wants to create a space where people do not have to worry about what time they should leave the office because of the traffic. “They can spend time in the gym or the swimming pool while waiting for the traffic to ease. Colony (at Vipod Residences) is also very close to the Pavilion KL, so it is really convenient if you need to grab something,” he adds.

He has also roped in Malaysian brands, Espresso Lab and The Healthy Food People, to set up their outlets so tenants will be able to enjoy healthy food and good coffee when they work here. “A lot of office workers can be seen coming back from lunch holding a cup of coffee or a bubble tea in their hands and these are little treats that light up their day,” he says.

He also noticed that many working mums have to rush to pick up their kids after work and immediately head home and cook or stop to pack food for the family.

“What we plan to do with the food operator is to provide nice, colourful tiffin carriers that the food operator can pack every day for the mums to take home to their families without any hassle. The next day, they can just bring the tiffin carriers back and return them to the food operators,” he shares.

The nap room for those who want some quiet time.

Find out more about co-working spaces in Singapore here and here.

Components of Colony

Built-ups of the rooms at Colony at Vipod are based on the number of seats. Two-seater rooms are around 84 to 89 sq ft each, 3-seater rooms are 106 to 122 sq ft, 4-seater rooms are 134 to 178 sq ft, 5-seater rooms are 176 sq ft and 6-seater rooms are 200 sq ft. There are a total of 50 rooms in the shared workspace.

There will be seven packages to cater to individuals with different needs. Prices for private offices start from RM1,988 per month, while reserved desks are from RM818 per month — for those who enjoy working with others but need a fixed desk to work on. The open “hot desk” which allows individuals to work anywhere — from the available rooms to the lounges — costs RM528; prepaid time passes for 100 hours are tagged at RM338 for those who need to pop in to office sometimes, and the price is RM50 per person for meeting rooms and event spaces. For an RM88 membership fee, you get four days per month access to an open hot desk. One can also have a virtual office mailbox starting from RM118 per month.

“We have lounge areas for the millennials who like to work in different environments at different times. They can just move around with their laptops. We also have nap rooms where people can take a short 20-minute power nap or for those who find it more productive to work on their own for a while. There is even a massage room, and I am thinking of introducing a manicure and pedicure service so people can work on their laptops when their nails are getting done,” he says.

“There is a full-fledged gymnasium and swimming pool on the top floor. There will also be a lactation room for breastfeeding moms. For parents with children who want to bring their kids into the office, we also have a playroom where they can leave their kids. In the future, I am thinking of setting up a nursery in the office,” he offers.

Design of the workspace

“For this wonderfully designed space, I have to credit my wife. She is really good with details and design. She taught me about design and themes. When we wanted to have a theme for the workspace, she told me it must not be made so blatant so it becomes cliché. Our theme for this office is The Gentleman’s Club, but the theme cannot be so full blown that it alienates people,” he offers. Tiah’s wife is popular blogger Fourfeetnine, or Audrey Ooi, and they have two children.

Help in fitting out the classy yet classic interiors also came from Hoe & Yin Design Studio, a KL-based interior design company.

Along the main corridors of Colony, there will be rooms that Tiah intends to design and fit out in different themes such as “fashion” or “IT” and will serve as a catalogue for potential tenants of the private offices. “If they like it, we can design the rooms for them and they will just have to pay the cost of the design,” Tiah remarks.

Another lounge area that can be converted into an event space.

A study on where people want to work

Much of the offerings at Colony were based on the results of a survey Tiah had conducted via his blog asking readers what is important for them when it comes to choosing a work place.

“I always thought that people will try to avoid the city centre because it requires travel and people have to be stuck in jams. But the fact is that people want to work at busy buzzing places that are connected to a mall and to public transport. And there are three places in Klang Valley that fit such requirements — the KLCC area, the Mid Valley area and the Sunway Pyramid area in Sunway City. And then maybe the Bandar Utama area,” he offers.

And those are exactly the places he would like to expand Colony. Part of the agreement inked with investors is that he has to open at least another co-working space by next June.

“Everywhere people talk about office glut and how offices have very low occupancy now. But when I was looking for an office space in the three areas (mentioned above), it was so difficult to find a space. Either that, or the rates were too high. In the KLCC area, the average rental is going for between RM6 and RM9 psf while in Mid Valley, the cheapest rate was RM6.30 psf at Menara IGB, and that is an old building. In Sunway City, we are talking about offices that are not even directly connected to Sunway Pyramid like Sunway Pinnacle, which does not have a single unit for rent! What office glut are we talking about?” Tiah asks.

In pursuit of creating great working environments

“I hope Colony raises the bar of what an office should be like. And hopefully in the next five years, this is what a typical office would be. Generally, if you show these kind of offices to employees, they will be like ‘Yeah! This is where we want to work!’ But it is a tough thing to convince the bosses. For bosses, it all drills down to the bottom line and results.

“What we can offer to them is staff retention,” he says, noting that many millennial workers are willing to take a pay cut for a good working environment. This eventually leads to cost savings for the company. “When a company has a high turnover rate, it is costly. The hiring process is costly. Sometimes, bosses ask, ‘why are my workers leaving even though I am paying them more?’ Well, are you providing a good working environment?” Tiah says.

While he is only at the start of his journey, he is giving himself five years to find out if his ideas have succeeded. His idea of success is when he sees others copying and coming up with similar office spaces.

“That is when I know I have succeeded and raised the standards of what a great working environment should be. It may take some time, but I believe I can do it,” Tiah opines.

A meeting room.

This story first appeared on The Edge Property Malaysia.

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