“Breather is a company that facilitates transactions between consumers and people renting out livable space.
The company promotes itself as a way to find an environment to rest outside of your home or office. The Next Web referred to it as the ‘Uber for private workspaces.’” On Wednesday August 17th, Breather unveiled its 100th space (200th globally.) The 100th Breather Space in New York City is located at 295 Madison Avenue, and consists of 3 work spaces that have been designed with Industry West. In a city that is constantly on the go, it’s not hard to see why a company such as Breather has been able to achieve so much success. I sat down with cofounder and CCO,Caterina Rizzi and Head of Design, Amy Johnson, at their launching to catchup on all things Breather.
I met up with CCO,Caterina Rizzi, and Head of Design, Amy Johnson, at a separate Breather space, located on 135 Bowery. On immediate entry, I noticed that the Bowery Breather space was filled with modernity. Minimalistic furniture spatially made up the room, simplistic black chairs aligned one large black desk centered in the middle, this simple arrangement gave off an aura that made me want to grab a cup of hot tea and take a breath of fresh air. All furniture consisted of clean, sharp lines. With no ornate and gaudy wallpaper or furniture present, it becomes easy to clear the mind and focus or just relax, I could easily imagine myself renting this space to study or take a break.
I made my way to the couch for a quick chat with cofounder and CCO, Caterina Rizzi as well as Head of Design, Amy Johnson.
Cofounder and CCO, Caterina Rizzi:
On opening their 200th space globally:
“Someone had just given me a timeline pamphlet of our whole existence that we had made for this event and I was like, here’s my life for the last four years (laughs.) It’s really exiting I still always have to have the mentality that we’re a small company. I don’t realize sometimes, how fast we’ve grown and what we’ve accomplished. Definitely recognize when we hit milestones but I’ll never get over the feeling of ‘wow this has really become something to people that’s actually changing the way people work and its amazing to see that kind of accomplishment and such a great team that we have now that makes things work.’”
On moving from national to international:
“It was always in our plans from the beginning our goal is to be in every metropolitan city in the world. It was a natural expansion plan to go to London first, from the beginning when we were just in one state. Londoners were emailing us in flocks saying “we need you here.” So it was really a natural progression to go to London and do that expansion. I think it was a no-brainier, London is just one of those cities that is demographically, geographically laid out perfectly.”
What do you feel makes each breather space unique?
“Our crack-team of designers. I actually have a new board for every city that we design for that makes it still feel like Breather no matter where you go in the world, but there’s all different nuisances, color patterns, textures. Depending on what city it is, so we really pay attention to which city we’re in and make it reflective of that city so it feels comfortable and truthful to the environment that you’re used to. So that means as we expand to every city we’ll definitely focus on things that make people feel welcomed, and comfortable while also using our own aesthetic.”
“Actually we’ve recently rolled out, by popular demand, being able to split the cost of the reservation. We recognize that a large demographic of people are from different walks of life. So we made it so that different groups of people can split the session and get together and pay as little as ten dollars to relax and get together so they can work amongst each other but still have that calmness and tranquility that you find in a coffee shop, but their still able to work amongst their peers and get advice.”
Amy Johnson, Head of Design:
Details on the 100th space:
This space, because we own the whole floor and all four unites on this whole floor so it’s really cool. There are four suites on the floor so we were really able to create something that carried through on and tells a story from all four rooms. So you’ll see the same kind of color pallets, you’ll see it’s a bit more gender neutral than some of our other spaces. It’s nice when we’re able to buy multiple spaces in the same building because we’re able to tell a story between each room.
What do you think this story tells (135 Bowery Breather)?
This one is the first one we have right in this area, in Bowery, so it’s a little extra kind of artistic past and present of this area, very modern. It’s the warmth and the artistic elements of the past and then that new modern twist.
What is the difference between each Breather? Internationally, nationally, and room to room?
We try to base it off of what’s happening in each city. So you’ll see similarities with some of our spaces in New York and Chicago, or West Coast but each city has its own personality. So there might be a separate color pallet for West Coast versus East Coast. In LA we have spaces with outdoor seating. We have four spaces in LA that have indoor and outdoor seating. In terms of branching out, our first space was Montreal, then New York, then everywhere.
What’s next for breather?
We’re going to decide where to explore the next five cities in the coming year!
