The TreexOffice story

The launch of the tree office generated a lot of media attention - the Guardian, BBC breakfast news, The London Festival of Architecture 2015 programme, London Design Journal, Dezeen Magazine and the latest RA Architecture Blog, to name a few.

TREExOFFICE is a space that can be used as a workspace, a venue to hold meetings, seminars, creative events or pop-ups. Income generated from the hire of the space will be reinvested into Hackney's parks and green spaces, for the benefit of all those who live, work and play in the borough.

However, the key next stage for the tree office team is to turn the media interest into bookings. We have financially modelled different income targets and are using the prediction that if the space is used at 50% capacity, it will make £20k within its first year. This would make TREExOFFICE a viable income-generating model, enabling the tree office to stay in the space long term and deliver impactful park improvements. So the big push this summer is to generate bookings.  

The Rethinking Parks programme allows for a test and learn methodology, and we are lucky enough to have the ability to test various different approaches to the tree office. We are testing the following things:

  1. What are the main uses of the space (e.g. co-working/private meetings/other)?

  2. What is the minimum amount of operations input needed to run the space (e.g. receptionist or self operating with a door code and online booking)?

  3. What payment options are most successful (pay per use/membership)?

  4. How popular is the space and how much income does it raise under different financial models and weather conditions?

  5. What has the user experience been (strengths and weaknesses)?

  6. What issues and matters arise that are unexpected and how can we learn from these for future structures?

To date, our monitoring has shown that the space is utilised more for meetings, than for co-working. We have amended the space, booking system and promotional offers in-line with this. We have also learnt that social involvement and local ownership is key. We have set up a group of 'tree office guardians' as a result.

We will be assessing what has worked and what hasn’t, to share with wider stakeholders, so that should any partners want to replicate this concept in the future, they will have access to tried and tested learning and best practice. We look forward to capturing the learning and making this project a success that’s replicable.

For bookings visit www.treexoffice.london

For more information contact: [email protected]

Author

Danielle Johnson

Danielle Johnson is Community Manager at Groundwork London and leading the Park Hack project, one of 11 Rethinking Parks projects across the UK.