Sinces its founding in 2016, female-centric coworking operator The Wing has focused on designing spaces that are catered to women. Now, the company is setting up an internal design team that has outfitted 80% of its newest locations in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Laetitia Gorra, senior designer at The Wing, along with two others, lead The Wing’s design team. Gorra said that the team looks for furniture that supports women’s height and depth, opposed to furnishings that are typically geared towards men’s stature.
One of the more common examples of poor female-oriented office spaces is the lack of lactation rooms. When offices do offer such spaces, they are overtaken by men for their own purposes, such as Uber CEO Travis Kalanick using the company’s lactation room for meditation.
Each branch of The Wing offers a mothers’ room complete with a fridge, sink, and a changing table.
The Wing is now taking their design to build spaces for companies who hope to incorporate a more female-oriented environment. Such spaces are certainly great for mothers, but are also great for companies looking to retain these employees.
“Employers who are increasingly more conscious of creating spaces for working women and for moms came to us as an authority on how to design those spaces,” said Audrey Gelman, CEO and cofounder. “For us, it’s an advancement of our mission to know you don’t have to be in a Wing space to have our philosophy in your work environment.”
