The Rise of Coworking Spaces in Barcelona

Palm trees, cobbled streets, remarkable architecture, a lavish nightlife, patatas bravas and skateboarders grinding the MACBA courtyard rails. The ‘beer-cerveza’ guys and the lingering echo of anarchism and living against the status-quo. Phenomenal hillside viewpoints and the could-be-cleaner beaches that we still like to lounge at when we’re not picnicking at Ciutadella or barbequing on a rooftop terrace with friends.

Not to mention it’s one of the cities with the most coworking spaces in the world.

Barcelona, in its exquisite imperfection, is an unbelievable place to live and work.

Entertainment and leisure throng the Catalan capital and bring a year-round flow of tourists to its streets. The ideal spot for jewelry-making backpackers and hitchhiking couchsurfers, Barcelona is also a hub for digital nomads and entrepreneurs in Europe.

Never one to disappoint, the city is lush with opportunities and coworking spaces for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It is home to some 1,200 startups and over a 100,000 freelancers (autonomos) and one of Europe’s biggest entrepreneurial ecosystems for digital businesses, attracting freelancers and businesses from across the globe.

The city with the most coworking spaces in the world?

Front page of Metropolitan magazine’s October issue and covered in a feature by monthly online journal BCNmes.com, coworking is trending in Barcelona.

A coworking space is just what it sounds like: a shared working environment for people who are self-employed or working for different employers. It's also an excellent office space for startups without a budget to rent out an entire office.

One of Europe’s top five flourishing cities for startups, Barcelona is one of the cities with the most coworking spaces in the world. And in those spaces, the majority of coworkers are foreigners, expats and digital nomads. There’s also a volley of anti-cafes which are spaces that lie at the intersection of an office and a cafe for those commitment-phobic nomads. Which, let’s face it, most of us are.

If it sounds like a digital nomad’s dream – it is.

Barcelona’s coworking spaces offer a heavenly balance of what digital nomads or location-independent professionals seek in a work environment: affordable access to a working space, a dynamic business community, and high-speed internet connection (life). An added bonus: since everyone is working on a different project, nobody has to “put on a work persona to fit in”.

What started as a trend in Barcelona is becoming the norm. There’s no freelancer in Barcelona that hasn’t at least heard of coworking.

Coworking spaces need to be innovative to stay competitive

Digital nomads working in Gaudi’s territory are spoiled for choice. There is a coworking space for every taste: portside, rooftop terraces overlooking the Sagrada Familia, smaller and cozier spaces, innovation hubs teeming with startups and tech-heads, re-purposed factories, re-purposed large apartments, open café spaces with gardens – the offer is overwhelming.

With spaces available all over the city, competition is fierce, and most spaces are forced to go beyond offering a simple place to work. Without innovation, it’s hard for these spaces to be profitable.

Many offer social events for their coworkers, from monthly vermouth and pica pica events to get to know the coworkers, dinner events and even outside excursions. Most registrations will also come with discounts to training workshops, gyms memberships, and even restaurants around the city. Learning addicts can enjoy training sessions and skills-building, while fun-lovers can also find their home at offices with fiestas, bars and even free beers.

Competition is intense, and spaces are fighting to make sure their coworkers – us small business owners, freelancers, and digital nomads – blossom as far as possible within their walls.

Might Barcelona one day lose all of its traditional workspaces in lieu of dynamic coworking spaces?

Dan Zakai, CEO of Mindspace, says “As the focus on core continues, businesses will opt to outsource workplaces as-a-service. Co-working providers will compete to provide a work culture that is comfortable, functional, social, and embraces people’s lifestyles.”

Do you know of any unusual or imaginative coworking spaces opening up in the city? I’d love to hear about it!