Remi Dada, Founder and CEO of Spacefinish, has taken his learnings from Silicon Valley and is transforming offices across Africa into innovative workspaces.
In the dynamic realm of workspace strategy, Spacefinish stands as a beacon of innovation and transformation. Founded by Remi Dada, who drew inspiration from his time at Google in Silicon Valley, Spacefinish embarked on a mission five years ago to redefine the narrative surrounding work environments in Africa.
When Remi launched Lagos-based Spacefinish, his vision was clear: to elevate workspaces from mere functional settings to vibrant hubs of productivity, innovation, and collaboration.
Reflecting on his early experiences, Remi says, “At the time I worked at Google in Silicon Valley, I noticed the Google offices around the world were amazing but this wasn’t the same in Nigeria, which was less than ideal. I made it a mission to recreate what the Google office looked like so that myself and my colleagues could feel more productive and enjoy our experiences at work.
“My approach to the Google office design was to make it relevant to the local culture at the time. I wanted to challenge that notion, and discover what modern design in the workspace looked like in Africa. This was really at the heart of redesigning the Google Nigeria office, which I spearheaded that started my journey into workspace design.”
Though having international insight through his work experience in Silicon Valley, Remi reiterates that the key element required to create a successful workspace is to be culturally aware of your surroundings; to gain an understanding and respect of local traditions and values, which the end-user can connect to.
“It really comes down to identity,” he says. “For example, when X (formerly known as Twitter), wanted to open up an office in Ghana. They were very sensitive and intentional about getting the branding elements right, and being authentic to the local culture without being patronizing – and we were able to help them achieve this with our design of the office.
“When an African employee steps into an office space and feels legitimate representation, all of a sudden it makes them feel like they are connected to the global organization. They feel understood in a way that is rare given the historical lack of representation on design in Africa. Ultimately this increases their ability to buy into the culture and vision of the company.”
Through collaborations with industry stalwarts like Steelcase, Spacefinish have identified that as companies pivot to remote, hybrid and onsite models, the commercial real estate industry is stuck in the past leaving a gap filled with inefficiencies.
Research carried out by Spacefinish underscored the importance of providing businesses with more flexibility as today’s workforce craves environments that enable them to navigate between different work styles and settings effortlessly. With their new sister company, Campus, they are helping organizations thrive in a post-pandemic setting with turnkey spaces with the most flexible terms that addresses hybrid, on-site and remote needs for mid-large companies in Africa revolutionizing the real estate experience.
“I think we are finally settling in somewhere between remote and hybrid,” says Remi. “Global companies need employees to come into the office. We understand that the home is now the second office, where people do focus work. But still they need to come together to collaborate. So we need to design spaces that support the distributed nature of work, and are optimized for real human connections. These probably mean smaller, more efficient spaces, more variety in meeting rooms, and also bring food into the fold, where work cafes are designed for connection and community building.”
