Co-Working & Co-Living, a concept designed for hospitality

How can an international company make its employees feel even more at home when they are travelling between its various branches? Efficy provides a relevant and innovative answer to this practical question, with Co-Working & Co-Living, offering hotel rooms located directly within a friendly working environment.

Efficy, Europe’s leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, wanted to further promote the well-being of all its employees. Based in a brand new head office in Brussels, the cutting-edge company, which has more than 500 employees, mainly in Europe, took advantage of this move to introduce a truly innovative concept.

“Efficy – ReShape the Work Experience” aims to meet all the needs of employees, including offering hotel rooms that can be booked for business trips. The concept facilitates collaborative working.

Efficy used Alternativ to express this concept and create a workspace where any employee could work, live, eat and sleep. “On an empty 800m2 site, we fitted out 5 rooms, as well as an ultra-friendly custom-made kitchen. The aim was to bring employees together, to facilitate collaborative work and to host team events,” explain Delphine Fromont and Guillaume Duquesne, two of the designers at Alternativ.

A workplace that becomes a living space

Co-Working + Co-Living = a nice place to work and live. This equation was defined by the client, and Delphine and Guillaume analysed, deciphered and translated it into a completely innovative living space. “We fitted the rooms with showers and every comfort needed for a restful break. We also designed a kitchen that occupies 1/3 of the space, where you can actually cook a good meal after work. But a shower means a water supply, a kitchen means ventilation, in short, technical constraints that we obviously had to anticipate!” 

This ability to handle every aspect of a project lays at the heart of the interest in working with a company with a “Design & Build” approach such as Alternativ. From the briefing with the company to carrying out the work, including handling all the technical requirements, everything is planned, considered, anticipated, and instantly sorted out – removing a thorn in the side for the client.

The strength of teamwork

Moreover, the complementary approaches of Alternativ’s teams often create an extra sparkle. “Delphine’s strength lies in her concepts and her projection into a project, while mine lies in my ability to use different software such as Autocad and Pcon. This project required iteration and validation phases in order to be able to consider the next steps. We really worked with great agility. Alone we go faster, with two we go further,” Guillaume states somewhat philosophically.

One thing is certain, the concept of Co-Working & Co-Living created and initiated by Efficy has been accurately translated into an innovative workplace. “This place is the result of a co-creation process between the client and Alternativ. We collaborated very closely with them to translate their needs and their desire to give the workspace an industrial start-up style. Efficy would like to reproduce this concept, which fits perfectly with their corporate culture, in other offices abroad!” An initiative welcomed by the two designers.

Project Manager: Natalie Schoonjans

Designers: Delphine Fromont & Guillaume Duquesne