The Necessity of the Live/Work Space
The pandemic has brought about a new, yet not so new, phenomenon – working from home. At Ectypos Architecture, we believe functional working space in the home is essential. The shared corporate office space may not entirely be a thing of the past, but people (and the corporations who employ them) are discovering that they can work from without compromising their productivity or the quality of their output. The benefits are immense such as the time and money saved not commuting or leasing oversized office space. Hell with Zoom we only need to be decently dressed from the waist up and make sure the background is moderately respectable.
Live/Work space offers greater flexibility and use of one’s home…if designed properly. In nearly all our projects, clients request a dedicated home office or work area. This is not the left-over bedroom or the garage that no longer parks the car. It is a space that is flexible enough for changing work requirements, allows for easy technological upgrades, has storage, can be private, but also host meetings. Depending on the type of work, means and tastes, it need not necessarily be large. Sometimes the space is designed with a dual intention: as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) when not needed as an office; or perhaps converts to a guest room for the occasional out of town visitor.
Live/Work spaces are not new but they are being rediscovered as a vital need in dwelling. They add personal and economic value to any home and may be the new urban phenomenon that changes the way we inhabit our cities. Instead of silo-izing our communities with residential zones versus office zones, we can live where we work work and work where we play. We can wholly inhabit these spaces rather “9-5” them. We can be present for our families and friends in a different way and on a different schedule. This pandemic is changing the way we, as a society, interact and live and some of it is really positive.
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