Frankie Unsworth visits a flexible workspace with global franchise ambitions for mobile workers in Buenos Aires.
January 19th, 2011
The best design concepts often orginate from solutions to daily problems. Urban Station is the response to a very modern dilemma.
The brainchild of a small tribe of mobile workers struggling to find spaces to park their Macs and hold meetings away from whining babies, Urban Station responds to the growing trend for ‘homeworkers’ – whether small architectural practices, freelance writers or consultants – looking for a flexible space as a base.
Set to roll out numerous franchises in Buenos Aires in 2011, the concept is simple but highly effective. I met up with 2 of the 4 founders for a tour of the first branch in Palermo Soho – a trendy barrio home to many ad agencies, art galleries and studios.
Housed in a lofty warehouse space, the first Urban Station combines all the essential design elements of a modern office space to be used by individual or small group workers with hourly, daily and monthly rates.
“As mobile workers we all suffered the problems we are trying to solve here for freelancers,” Marcelo Cora, one of the co-founders, explains.
The 4 partners behind the project come from a variety of backgrounds – among them a marketing director, consultant and an art director, all of whom retired from their corporate careers to launch the concept in November 2009.
There are break out spaces furnished with flea market finds which offer a relaxed contrast to the desks and stations, each replete with a ‘backpack’ – a specially-designed pocket to nest wires and electrical outlets.
Meeting rooms on the upper mezzanine can be rented out for small group sessions.
There is a coffee zone where workers are invited to help themselves to coffee and toast, or the porteno’s answer to a croissant – a medialuna.
Branded bikes in the Urban Station’s ubiquitous golden yellow are available for customers to take for a spin around the nearby park or scoot off for a meeting.
Two more franchises – one downtown and the other in San Telmo – are to follow early this year, with plans for international expansion in the very near future.
With their strong brand identity their aim is to create a global network of Urban Stations so mobile workers will never be too far from a place to call ‘office’.
Urban Station
urbanstation.com.ar
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
XTRA celebrates the distinctive and unexpected work of Magis in their Singapore showroom.
To honour Chef James Won’s appointment as Gaggenau’s first Malaysian Culinary Partner, we asked the gastronomic luminaire about parallels between Gaggenau’s ethos and his own practice, his multidimensional vision of Modern Malaysian – and how his early experiences of KFC’s accessible, bold flavours influenced his concept of fine dining.
Within the intimate confines of compact living, where space is at a premium, efficiency is critical and dining out often trumps home cooking, Gaggenau’s 400 Series Culinary Drawer proves that limited space can, in fact, unlock unlimited culinary possibilities.
In design, the concept of absence is particularly powerful – it’s the abundant potential of deliberate non-presence that amplifies the impact of what is. And it is this realm of sophisticated subtraction that Gaggenau’s Dishwasher 400 Series so generously – and quietly – occupies.
The ArcView series of monitor mounts suspends up to 8 flat panel monitors “4-over-4” above the work surface, supporting up to 90 kg in weight. Independent pivot and tilt adjust of each monitor is possible, with height adjustments in 25mm increments. Dimensions: The Arcview series supports monitors up to 15 kg each.Beam width is 141 […]
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth gets a facelift, under the deft hand of FK.
Buchan has rewritten the rules on how to design a library, overhauling the traditional interiors and meagre façade, with their iteration of the Biyal-a Armstrong Creek Library.
Winner of the 2025 RedDot Design Awards, the newly relaunched Flo monitor arm by Colebrook Bosson Saunders (CBS) brings refined ergonomics and effortless movement to the forefront of modern workspaces – proving that comfort and performance start at the desk.