Are you one of those freelance or nomadic workers who don’t have a permanent office? A new working culture has established in the past decade that offers an alternative to the kitchen table at home or a working spot at a café: coworking spaces. We present five very different community offices in the capital.

More and more people are deciding to work in a coworking space, which is a sort of community office for freelancers and micro-entrepreneurs. It’s a place where you can meet customers and rely on an already existing office infrastructure. This makes it a cost-efficient alternative for start-ups in the foundation phase as compared to the classical office renting. The networking opportunities are also not to be underestimated.
However, not all coworking spaces are the same. Although the individual community offices have similar basic facilities, they have completely unique personalities.

A small family at KAPTÁR

KAPTÁR is one of the smaller but therefore more familiar community offices in Budapest. This coworking space is just a couple of steps away from St. Stephen’s Basilica, in Révay köz. At first look the atmosphere in the airy working space is like a mixture of a café and a library. Desks, high tables with comfortable bar chairs, two sofas, several comfortable armchairs and a big shelf full of books fill the space.
The conference rooms, which are cabins with glass walls, fit the open design of the community office. Thanks to the glass, the separated rooms are bathed in natural light while the sound isolation prevents the attention from wandering. The conference rooms for two or up to 12 people can be used free of charge by the members of the coworking space, but they can also be rented by outsiders.
If needed, the whole space can be rented for large-scale events. Besides the typical basic coworking space equipment, such as fast internet connection, printers and scanners, a kitchen, or the possibility to register the seat of your company through KAPTÁR, it’s especially the social offers and the community feeling that make this the perfect place to work for freelancers hungry to make contact.
Co-founder Áron Levendel is working to integrate the new members of the coworking space to the community as quickly as possible: “We organise events and workshops, allowing our members to get to know each other. We have lunch together every Wednesday, at which we are talking about work and private life.” It’s a fact that at KAPTÁR friendships are just as often formed as fruitful business relationships – and working with friends is just more fun.
You can find more information at: www.kaptarbudapest.hu/en/

The pearl among all coworking offices: LOFFICE

Working with the crème de la crème of Budapest’s creative scene in one of the most exciting working environments of the city – this is what LOFFICE offers. The company founded by sisters Kata and Panni Klementz was the first to offer coworking spaces in Hungary. “At that time there was not even a Hungarian word for this phenomenon. We had to begin from zero,” Kata Klementz remembers.
Thanks to its pioneering role, LOFFICE has major influence on the domestic coworking scene. “We were the first ones, so we could set the standards and the prices, which still serve as the basis for orientation for the others,” she says.
The sisters were inspired directly by Brad Neuberg, the founder of the coworking movement, to establish their own community office. In 2007 they found their first location in the building of a former press office near the music academy in the Paulay Ede utca, which they renovated in two years. Thanks to the renovation the building did not only get back its original character, but it was also adapted to the actual criteria regarding sustainability and energy-efficiency – the heating is fuelled by alternative energy, using the flow of the Danube.
Ever since it was opened in 2009, LOFFICE has been known for placing a strong emphasis on environmental awareness and social responsibility, and giving design a major role: the offices, conference and event rooms were designed with the involvement of interior designers and contemporary artists.
“We did not want just average office rooms, rather a place which inspires everyone,” Klementz explains the special focus of these coworking spaces. This kind of quality has its price: LOFFICE is one of the most expensive community offices. “We don’t want to change that. Our aim is to attract people who understand the value of working in an attractive environment,” Klementz says. And there are many such people, since currently all LOFFICE offices are rented, and there is high demand.
In collaboration with the OXO Labs Accelerator Program of former finance minister Péter Oszkó and the Power Angels business start-up agency, LOFFICE organises the “CEE Lift Off!” competition for start-up companies, which is one of the most respected of its kind in the region. Today LOFFICE has more than four locations in Budapest and since 2013 it’s also been represented with an office in Vienna.
You can find more information at: http://budapest.lofficecoworking.com/