A few years ago Constant Tedder found himself working in a Hong Kong coffee shop. He was in his early forties and had just sold the last of his business interests in London, including his stake in Jagex Games Studio, best known for the MMORPG RuneScape, which he co-founded.
“I’d been in London for all of my working life. I came to Hong Kong to experience a different part of the world,” he recalls, saying he arrived in Hong Kong with no plans, totally open to new possibilities. Tedder has always been the audacious, adventurous type, apparently. He sold T-shirts to pay his way through Bristol University, founding his own company as soon as he’d graduated. According to a profile of him carried in a press release, “In 2007 Constant travelled over 3,200 miles [4,800km] unsupported across the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Beirut on jet skis with university friend Pablo Guadalmina."
Once in Hong Kong, he quickly established a niche for himself. “I didn’t have a base to work from. Spaces in Hong Kong are really tight. If you’re starting a business, you’re probably working from home a bit, in coffee shops a bit. It’s the same all over the world,” he reasons. “I realised that there were probably many other people in the same situation as I was.”
Not one to remain idle for long, Tedder set about remedying the situation, turning a challenge into an opportunity by creating a co-working space he dubbed the Hive. For clients he targeted youngish freelancers and entrepreneurs, people who missed the comforting sound of keyboards clicking away next to them in an office setting, but were repulsed by the thought of working 9-to-5 shifts, bathed in fluorescent light and surrounded by Formica surfaces.
The concept of a co-working space — a cross between an office, cafe and someone’s living room — is not new, first appearing in San Francisco’s Bay Area back in 2005. “Work spaces can, and should, reflect the way that people want to work now, should be more attuned to the lifestyle,” says Tedder, noting that most freelancers and people in start-ups need nothing more than internet access.
With interior designer James Waterworth, Tedder conceived of a space that would be conducive to working while also encouraging conversation, the exchange of ideas and phone numbers. Tedder and Waterworth met at a housewarming party — for a building whose interior the latter had worked on. Waterworth had just completed the Soho Beach House in Miami, and the two decided to reproduce the homey feel of that private members club in the Hive, a place intended to bring like-minded people together.
“There were three [co-working spaces] in Hong Kong [at that time] and now there are about 22,” says Tedder. The Hive itself has expanded from a single location with two floors to three separate locations in Hong Kong plus a Bangkok branch, on Sukhumvit Soi 49, which has just had its soft opening (on May 20).
“We looked at many cities and Bangkok really stood out as the city with the most diverse, creative working community. It places a high emphasis on design and there’s a tremendous amount going on here,” says Tedder.
In recent years, Bangkok has seen a few shared offices and co-working spaces opening up downtown, examples including HUBBA on Ekamai and Glowfish on Asoke.
The Hive in Bangkok is a hip, airy loft on Sukhumvit Soi 49, though it doesn’t boast jungle-themed offices lined with sods of turf or bowling alleys or hammocks and fireman’s poles like the geek playgrounds of Google or Facebook headquarters. A free-standing building with large windows on all sides, the main area is an open space which can be put to many uses. There are also permanent offices, “hot desks”, meeting rooms, communal areas, mail boxes, phone booths, including extra-large ones for conducting conference calls via Skype. (“People’s voices tend to get higher when they’re on Skype,” Tedder remarks.) Glass walls are used as much as possible to create optimum lighting conditions. There’s even a rooftop lounge with an outdoor area where one can spy on patrons thronging the rooftop bar at nearby Grease.
“The architecture is the key to how the meeting spaces work,” Waterworth explains. “The interaction and collaboration between clients is what makes the Hive so unique. Learning from the practicalities [he encountered with the venture] in Hong Kong, this space is designed to create chances for people to have new meetings, driving the community aspects.”
Thomas Barker, general manager of the Hive Bangkok, was introduced to Tedder by his brother, who happens to be a member of the Hive in Hong Kong. Barker has brought to the venture the experience he gained running an award-winning boutique hotel in Tasmania, Australia.
“We want to create a space where you don’t feel like you’re being looked after, when you actually are. With anticipatory, proactive service, you don’t notice that you need or want something until it arrives,” Barker explains.
Tedder expects to attract dynamic clients working in creative fields of endeavour. In Hong Kong, his clients are self-selecting, he says. “We’ve got everyone from photographers, designers, wine traders, to film-production companies and mobile app developers, to people who make biodegradable cleaning products. It’s a very wide range, but what they all share is the tendency to be entrepreneurial,” says Tedder, adding, “basically no one in suits.”
