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In the studio with Ab Rogers Design
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The Meanwhile Manifesto
Meanwhile co-founder Nigel Taee on the central tenets of the brand, and its ambitious plans for the future of built environments that work harder for their inhabitants.
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Since 2009, Meanwhile has been busy designing, building and managing buildings with one driving motivation: to push at the boundaries of what our built environments can offer us in a fast-changing world, with the aim of making life better and easier.
This began with student accommodation in the form of Scape, a brand that offers those studying a self-contained city dwelling that prioritises their needs, and has branched out to encompass Morro, a new model for urban living that brings together private, fully furnished apartments with top-of-the-range amenities. With many more exciting projects in the pipeline and ideas for how to further integrate Meanwhile spaces into the local community, there’s so much more to come.
Here, Meanwhile co-founder Nigel Taee – an expert in the field, having worked in the serviced accommodation sector his entire career – breaks down the central tenets at the heart of the Meanwhile brand, revealing how it all started, and where it’s going.
Meanwhile as a form of promise
Meanwhile strives for synonymy with care, excellence, and putting its residents first, and it was this concept that formed the basis of the business. “I love efficiency, I love listening to the consumer, and I love brands, and what we noticed, back when we began, was that not much property was brand-associated in the way that, say, great hotels are, like the Four Seasons. There were one or two players doing this in the student market when we arrived, but that was about it.”
For Nigel, a brand is not just a name. “A brand is how you go about and execute on behalf of the consumer,” he says. “That’s what we realised was badly lacking in student accommodation, which was the first thing we set out to tackle with Scape, and there’s still a massive opportunity to create different kinds of branded urban environments that are ever more efficient and aspirational. Ultimately, when the consumer knows the brand, and they know you really care, that goes a long way.”
A quest for creative repositioning
Ever since its inception, Meanwhile has taken up the task of what Nigel terms “creative repositioning,” in other words, looking at what kinds of built environments currently exist and working out ways to redefine them. The aim is to offer something better, spaces that work harder for their users, that serve to improve their lives rather than simply catering to their basic needs. “So far, we've repositioned student living, and we've given it our own take. We've repositioned the world of multifamily and built to rent (BTR), albeit in a small way so far – and there’s so much more to do!"
A brilliant team that can do anything
Meanwhile is made up of designers, architects, financial bodies, planners, thinkers and doers, who operate as one vertical team. “The business was born from decades spent crafting a highly motivated team of visionaries, who focus relentlessly on delivering a dynamic living experience within the urban environment." This end-to-end approach allows the business to carry out each of its projects to a meticulous, best-in-class standard, from the planning stages through adding the final flourishes to the interior design. “We are a think tank that is able to execute,” says the co-founder. "The model is design, develop, operate and finance. It's a potent recipe because it allows you to do things that other people can't do. To challenge the norm."
Making small spaces that sing
Meanwhile specialises in creating small spaces that sing, offering more while taking up less room, which in turn allows residents to live in the most desirable places. “When we started, I gave a mandate that I only wanted Scape to be in the best locations and if we were going to do that, we had to build more units than somebody else would to make the economics work. We took our inspiration for small spaces from boats, aeroplanes, caravans – you can walk into a small space that is well designed and it doesn't feel small; it just feels beautifully crafted. Equally, you can walk into a large space that's poorly designed and it feels vacuous.”
Designing from the inside out
Key to all Meanwhile projects is the process of designing from the inside out – focussing on how an environment will be lived in, its adaptability to users’ needs, and how it can enhance the way they live. “We create our buildings through the eyes of the consumer. For example, we design all our furniture so that it fits perfectly where it’s meant to and allows for more space. Then we create these amazing amenity spaces that offer our residents a vibrant menu of things they can do outside of their self-contained private space; these beautiful, holistic environments that we’re hoping to open up to the local community in the future, while retaining the privacy of our residents.”
Always looking to the future
The Meanwhile team is always seeking to improve and innovate, and they won’t be stopping any time soon. “Our focus over the last decade has been improving the lives of students via Scape, delivering brilliant buildings and services,” Nigel explains. “Our innovative residential model, Morro – which has now launched in London, Guildford and Boston, with a further seven schemes currently in development across the UK and USA – is a much-elevated version of that.”
A spirit of entrepreneurship
Last but not least among the Meanwhile tenets is a championing of entrepreneurship. “It is woven into our DNA, and we are proud to be founder investors in Triyoga; the Seattle Coffee Company; Carluccio’s; Gravis Capital, and more in the UK.” Meanwhile’s door is always open to creative entrepreneurs who have the passion and drive to take their business to the next level, he stresses, as well as to brilliant thinkers who can bring their own brand of expertise and passion to the Meanwhile team.
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The Bon By Morro, Boston
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