We are Sanctuary Computer (a technology company), XXIX (a brand company), XXXI (a now defunct mixed use creative studio in the East Village), and a collective of other similar teams. Our core team is around 32 people, and our creative community is much, much larger.
<aside> 👩🏭 We continue to work with clients like IBM, General Electric, Nike, The Nobel Prize, Pratt's School of Architecture, ACLU, MIT, Adidas, AIGA, Mozilla, Mailchimp, and many more.
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This document is written by Hugh Francis, the founder & studio lead of Sanctuary Computer.
We run a 32 person creative company, and have a network of tens of thousands of NYC creatives. The pandemic has forced us to work from home, waking up and hunching over our laptops for 8 hours.
We have more flexibility, but our mental health is suffering. We crave a commute. We crave community. We have felt the feeling of being subject to the full force of the daily grind with unnecessary human interaction and daily minutia stripped; and we do not like it.
<aside> 🤝 Small to medium businesses have closed their offices, with no intention to take that liability on ever again. But they're hearing from their team that they miss the office, and want an optional workspace. Enter Index.
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The world has changed. We should expect that workers will now be on 150% more calls no, and they need a space that accommodates a mix of hybrid remote / in-person collaboration styles. We should expect that businesses will pay on behalf of their workers.
Most co-working spaces are goofy, and we are simply not the same. We are targeting freelancers and fulltimers, not hustle-culture entrepreneurs (who are more likely to want a cheaper space so they can reinvest in their own business). We should expect that people will appreciate community more than ever. We should expect they will want hyper flexible options; for the smart companies that understand offices should serve as a resource, and no longer be mandatory.
We are designing a space to this core thesis.
<aside> 🤓 **→ WeWork is goofy & embarrassing. (Women don't always feel safe there) → Neuehouse is expensive and alienating. → The Yard & Industrious are too basic. → The Wing excludes men. → The smaller, independent co-working spaces are scrappy and poorly designed. They don't fit with a post-COVID style of hybrid remote work. → Galvanise is too techy.
Instead, we want to build a space for creatives like us to feel at home.**
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While our model is similar to a traditional co-working space, fundamentally, we are different. We are building an institution, not an office. We intend to be a welcoming staple of the neighborhood. We intend for Japanese tourists to visit our design store. We intend to have a point of view, and to give back to our community at large.