In a brilliant bit of lateral thinking, two UK professors have analysed a series of strategies that help astronauts create work/life balance in the confines of their spacecraft – and proposed these as a model for remote workers everywhere post-Covid.

In this NPR City Club of Eugene broadcast on the future of work, Howard Davis and Frances Holliss evisage the transformative potential of ‘The Next Normal’ for work: expanded flexibility that has the potential to better support workers, families and local economies, and to significantly reduce waste, pollution and stress.

In this blog post, Howard Davis discusses the historical construction of an economic and social way of life and how this is being significantly challenged through the impacts of the present pandemic. Ideals centered around the ‘family’, ‘public good’, and the ‘office’ are starting to erode and transform, as academics and corporations, individuals and communities, are starting to interrogate the new normal.

Working from home has presented a number of physical and spatial challenges for many of us in our varying homes, households and neighbourhoods. In our latest episode we discuss the various ways that design can improve our ability to work from home and why it is important.

Working from home is becoming the new norm – while white collar workers have benefited, it has increased inequality for many working class employees. Here more about these issues on our latest podcast, ‘Social Inequality and the Workhome’, with Frances Holliss and Richard Brown.

The theme of the inaugural Davidson Prize for architectural drawing, ‘Home/Work – A New Future’, sought out thought-provoking ideas to help inform the debate about working from home. Our ‘Two-door city’ concept made it on the shortlist.

In her contribution to the Architecture Foundation’s 100 Day Studio programme, Frances Holliss explores the continuing impact of the historic disapproval of home-based work on housing design today – and the disproportional impact this has on BAME communities