The purpose built home for living and work

Moments of working from home alone have the advantage of privacy. You decide who to let into your work life and are protected by a virtual button of acceptance. You’re either available, or completely unavailable.

As time goes on however, questions arise around the topic of, is this work, or am I just hanging out at home?

Employment relationships are hoping for productive, healthy employees working remotely. In our interviews we noticed that if people don’t have an outlet for casual yet intimate conversations, they’ll struggle with their sense of self. This can undermine mental health for the individual and for the work collective. The cognitive load in navigating the different life modes of work, family, house maintenance, and personal time is an immense task. Emotional privacy becomes a topic of its own to research further.

The alternative to all this is the purpose built home. The physical layout and the objects within the space need to adapt to help us be more prepared for work. 

The patterns of work and living behaviour is a new design task. Is a work office defined as a separate place within the home, or like most of our interviews, the living environment is the same as the work environment. A kitchen table and chairs convert to a workstation. A temporary condition becomes fairly permanent, for months on end.

Design in context: We need to ask new questions of the home, and be able to sense opportunities to evolve it. The shift in preparing the home for work is an ongoing migration process which people need help in navigating.