The Fleot, by Community Coworking – twiindata

Coworking with a mission

Located in London’s Fleet St. Quarter, Fleet House at 8-12 Bridge St, EC4 is surrounded by building sites as the area is under redevelopment.  Whilst the building’s landlords apply for planning permission to redevelop the site, the building lay empty until The Fleot was created. Calling itself a “green skills hub”, The Fleot is a proof-of-concept space for a completely new approach to utilising empty workspace for the benefit of the local community, workforce and environment; offering coworking, arts and education in one place.

The concept has been developed by Community Coworking, a social enterprise set up to enable new ways of working and learning and to activate obsolete spaces, supporting local economies to create social value. The team, led by Founder Jo Tasker, aims to support high street regeneration and tackle hyperlocal issues such as digital poverty to underpin social mobility within communities across the UK.

This concept is a win for all areas of CRE

“The Fleot is a great example of how the real estate and construction industries and local boroughs can work collectively to redevelop areas and upskill in relevant construction skill shortage areas with the local population, whilst supporting Government goals for regeneration,” Jo believes. “We have education partners who are providing courses on site which are focused on filling skills gaps in the construction industry and supporting reuse of existing space. These include CAD, net zero supporting courses in engineering and even a Level Three City & Guilds in Retrofit. Other partners include recruitment agencies in the CRE sector, supporting those with new skills to find jobs in the area.”

Fleet Studios

The building also houses Fleet Studios, offering gallery space and low-cost studios to artists from under represented groups.

Overall, the concept makes great sense for all parties, with construction companies gaining an increasingly skilled workforce and landlords improving their social impact credentials, which support their planning applications.

For technologywithin it’s a great opportunity to work on another project with social value. “It’s exciting to partner with Community Coworking on The Fleot,” said Ed Crabtree, Director, Business Development. “This community space feels like a fantastic way to support the wider industry and local community.  It’s also proof that great internet and WiFi performance is key to any shared space.”

Great WiFi is achievable even in temporary spaces

After a site survey, the technologywithin projects team had just two weeks to create and execute a plan to provide secure, high-performance internet and WiFi for the temporary multi-floor, multi-use workspace.  The solution centres around twiindata, the network management solution designed for and used in over 500 shared workspaces across Europe.  Projects Director, Kevin Jones believes that, “An experienced project management team is key in these situations, to assess the space and come up with a workable network solution that meets the customer’s needs in such a short and high-risk time frame.”

Jo Tasker also really appreciated the team’s efforts, “I was thrilled with how the technologywithin install team tackled the project. They were completely unfazed by the challenge and in two weeks start to finish they delivered internet and WiFi throughout the building in a far from ideal situation.”

twiindata – a versatile networking solution

So, what will happen at the end of The Fleot’s time at Bridge St? Jo hopes that the set up will be moved to another empty space as the redevelopment of the Fleet St. Quarter continues and the concept will be picked up by other councils and landlords across the country. The flexibility of the technologywithin network management solution means that it can also be removed from the building and set up again in its new home.

Find out more about community coworking here.

If you are looking for a managed network solution for your workspace, get in contact with our sales team here, or find more details about twiindata here.