The American shared workspace company, WeWork, launched its 6th Tokyo location in August 2018 – promising to be one of its most glamorous locations yet.
Born out of New York in 2010, the WeWork shared office empire now spans 87 cities in 23 countries. With this 7-storey "Iceberg", located on Meiji-dori Avenue in Omotesando, we could arguably be witnessing the pinnacle of their global offices, with this architectural marvel unmissable on the Tokyo cityscape (and originally opening in 2006 occupied by the Audi Forum Tokyo). Designed by Tokyo-based Creative Designers International, the modern structure's asymmetrical glass façade joins an exterior, transparent glass elevator that draws visual inspiration from crystals, icebergs and even crushed PET bottles. It's perfectly suited to the share office vibe here, with huge amounts of natural light and open spaces fostering creativity.
Just like any WeWork location, visitors to the internal shared office space must already be WeWork members to gain full access. But for fleeting visits, the ground-floor public cafe space provides seating and a decent menu of pastries and micro-roasted coffee – including from local brand Streamer coffee.
For business travelers or digital nomads in town who are existing members, WeWork Iceberg provides a good range of shared office space and Hot Desks, including the first-floor lounge and ample workstations on the second floor. There's also plenty of breakout space, bookable conference rooms as well as soundproofed phone booth alcoves for those seeking to concentrate or conduct private calls – fast Internet and printing facilities come as standard.
When booking your visit in advance, the Community Management team will aim to facilitate networking by grouping like-minded workers (by industry or skillset) together, fostering communication and potentially valuable interactions. WeWork members should certainly drop by on their next business trip to Tokyo —with further locations now in Fukuoka, Osaka and Yokohama too.