Creating an Elevated Social Club with 1880 Bardo

1880 is a membership-based social club in Singapore. Embodying the melting-pot culture of the city it serves, this sprawling 22,000 sq. ft. marvel brings together an eclectic group of individuals ranging from artists to businessmen. The club offers various amenities to help its members forge meaningful connections. Chief among these facilities is a modern coworking space, Bardo.

Intelligent conversations reshape the world

1880 draws inspiration from the social clubs of yore as well as from its Founder, Marc Nicholson’s unique upbringing. For decades, Marc’s parents religiously welcomed friends and community members into their home on a weekly basis to engage in lively discussions about the current state-of-affairs. Believing that the world itself could be changed through interesting conversations flowing through a diverse group of people, Marc founded 1880 in Singapore.

It was his penchant for naturally curious and intelligent minds that then led him to his partnership with current CEO of 1880, Luke Evans. Luke likens 1880’s members to a tribe. Luke explains that traditionally, tribes consisted of like-minded individuals who shared a common goal or bond that would help them work together.

Likewise, 1880 hopes to bring together all the potential disrupters under one roof and get them to join each other’s world-changing tribes, one meaningful conversation at a time.

When looking for a technology partner, 1880 wanted to partner with an organization that shared in their vision for creating community and opportunities for interesting conversations. 1880 decided to partner with Optix prior to opening their doors to their community in 2017. Today, they are utilizing Optix features such as the community feed and the in-app chat functionality to help power those conversations within their community.

Transitioning from work to play

Since the coworking environment is an addendum to the 1880 club, it questions the work-life balance myth as Bardo members can take in a light workout in the morning, groom themselves, cool off in a spa, take coffee breaks and meet up for after-work dinner and drinks – without even leaving the office!

With the flurry of activity around them, Bardo members regularly come and go into the coworking space. That is why Jessica believes that her core function is to create a conducive environment that can accommodate all the creative forces around her. She hopes to provide a seamless workspace experience that suits the modern working styles of today’s professionals.

Jessica enjoys the easy-to-use Optix-powered venue manager’s dashboard. With the Kisi integration enabled, Jessica has been able to connect her Optix plans with access control groups in Kisi, providing Bardo’s members with more freedom to use the space as they please, much like other amenities in 1880. She also finds that the automatic invoice generation functionality makes her life easier, allowing her to keep track of outstanding payments.

Never a dull moment

Singapore is one of the world’s largest cities and one of the first pioneers of the coworking space. The future of coworking could look a lot like Bardo with its modern design. And Bardo’s design by English design firm, Timothy Oulton, is truly remarkable. 1880 members can book meeting spaces through the Optix app, allowing them to access, for example, a formal boardroom that can transition into a party hall as walls collapse. Users can also pop into aluminum-clad, sound-proof telephone booths outside of the space for uber-private conversations.

The setting of Bardo inside the 1880 club also means that if workers are running out of ideas, they can go out into the club for a drink, a coffee or food while enjoying a stimulating conversation with anyone they deem interesting. Jessica, like Marc and Luke, believes that the future of work could look a lot like Bardo – one that caters to the modern, creative professional, looking to challenge the norms and question the status quo.