Igluu

DATE

30 January 2025

TEXT

Mick van Biezen

IMAGE

Brian Mul

Igluu on Zeestraat has lovely workspaces with a beautiful garden

What started with a simple office in Utrecht has grown into Igluu - the Netherlands' first coworking space. Michiel Morks tells how his passion for design and connection led him to open Igluu's largest branch on Zeestraat.

DATE

30 January 2025

TEXT

Mick van Biezen

IMAGE

Brian Mul

Igluu on Zeestraat has lovely workspaces with a beautiful garden

What started with a simple office in Utrecht has grown into Igluu - the Netherlands' first coworking space. Michiel Morks tells how his passion for design and connection led him to open Igluu's largest branch on Zeestraat.

Of course, things always turn out differently than you think. Also for Michiel Morks, who once studied IT and worked for fifteen years as a consultant for major banks. In 2008, he and two IT friends moved into their own office in Utrecht. They furnished the space according to their own taste and noticed increasingly how unanimously visitors reacted. Michiel laughs: "Everyone said: 'I would also like to work here, it doesn't feel like an office.'"


The colours and warmth are based on the feel of Andalusia

This insight led to the establishment of Igluu, the Netherlands' first coworking space. Several branches followed. In mid-December 2024, Morks will open the largest branch as far as, at 70 Haagse Zeestraat, where carriages used to drive to Scheveningen. Igluu moves from Louis Couperusplein to a new neighbourhood after 16 years. There are embassies, The Carlton Ambassador Hotel and the Peace Palace, and you can walk to the bustling Anna Paulownaplein in two minutes.

Special offer: To mark the opening, you get this month 30% discount On all bookings for meetings in the new venue. Valid until 28 February. More info.

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Always open

Michiel has a passion for design and architecture and it shows. The spaces have been beautifully designed by designer Marieke Velthuis, who is also his lover. She created the luxurious style - the warm colours and feel are based on Andalusia. Igluu also has partnerships with big names in the interior design world. FabervanderWijk and Spanish design agencies Forma5 and esPATTIO believed in Marieke and Michiel's interior design concept and entered into a partnership. They supply their latest furniture collections. Quality and beauty guaranteed.


I see up close and personal how wonderful new businesses are created at Igluu'

Many of the current customers are moving with them to the new location; half of the available thousand square metres will be occupied by them. The other half is for rent. You can book a workplace there as a self-employed person for 250 euros a month. You are welcome 24/7, the doors are always open. Permanent office space, including new furniture, is also available for rent. As well as flexible meeting rooms for up to 200 people, which can also be used for company drinks and events. And then there is the beautiful 600-square-metre garden. Everyone in the building can enjoy the greenery and peace and quiet there.

Working here simultaneously means being part of a dynamic environment. Shell, ministries, the provincial government, VNG, Oxfam Novib, VVD, D66 and organisations from the financial services sector are regularly found here for a meeting or event.

Circle is round

Significantly, Igluu has no investors; Michiel Morks bears the risk entirely himself. He believes in the concept and his team's mission: to connect entrepreneurs. It is a flexible, welcoming and warm place where everything revolves around a pleasant working atmosphere. The results speak for themselves. Michiel has seen how people first took just a business mailing address, then a workplace as a self-employed person, then rented a space and finally left because they got too big and opened their own office.

He proudly says: "The presence of the regular companies, the team and the freelancers creates a certain energy. Everyone experiences each other as colleagues. And people don't just help each other, I see very closely how wonderful new businesses are created. People inspire each other and join forces. Basically the same way it happened with myself and the co-founders. Everything comes together in Zeestraat, so the circle is complete."

www.igluu.nl