Workhome
Project

Among the many changes brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic has been the upsurge in people working from home. This has accelerated a trend that began more than two decades ago and shows no sign of slowing post-Covid. An online seminar hosted by Schueco UK and Architecture Today explored the latest thinking on a return to the office, the importance of design for work in the most significant new workplace – the home – as well recent examples of innovation in the commercial sector. The panel comprised Dr Frances Holliss, Workhome Project, School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University; Mat Hunter, Co-CEO of Plus X; and Carl Turner, founding director of Turner Works.

Covid-19 has forced a global experiment in home-based work that has exposed – and increased – glaring social inequalities. For those with plenty of space and access to a garden, lockdown is proving a tolerable – and for some positively enjoyable – experience. The opposite is true for social tenants in small, overcrowded apartments with little or no outside space. Architect and academic Frances Holliss, who has been researching and writing about the architecture of home-based work at LondonMet’s Workhome Project for more than a decade, will explore the continuing impact of the historic disapproval of home-based work on housing design today – and the disproportional impact this has on BAME communities. In the context of the emerging social, economic and environmental benefits of this working practice, Holliss will propose design for home-based work, including non-knowledge work, as an integral aspect of all future urban and housing design.

This event features Claudia Dutson, (RCA) who is researching the spatial and architectural tactics of Silicon Valley, in conversation with Frances Holliss, Director of the Workhome Project and international expert on the architecture of home-based work, speaking about the implications of the global experiment in home-based work during Covid-19.

In a special edition of Over Wonen gesproken ON AIR Architect Eireen Schreurs gave a lecture on the publication of DASH15 Home Work City. Together with the DASH-editorial team she explored the spatial and cultural impact of working on urban domestic culture. They unlock, from an international perspective, contemporary and historical references on architectural type and urban context at the level of the building block. In an online conversation with British architect and researcher Frances Holliss (London Metropolitan University) they have explored what might be learned about live-work connections in times of Covid-19.