As architects and parents during the time of COVID-19, we are fortunate to have occupations that allow us to work remotely. Still, we’ve been hurled head-long into the new reality of working from home, providing full-time childcare and homeschooling our kids. Our clients, friends, and families all are struggling with the same question: How can our houses become places conducive to these new functions while still serving as our homes?
As architects we are hyper-aware of our surroundings, so we’re thinking a lot about this new collision of home, kids and work-life. Here are a few strategies we’ve been exploring and implementing that we hope will inspire you.
Those of us with younger children have set up additional workspaces around the home to allow parents to work, while keeping an eye on kids where they want to be playing. Nathan Webb, shown on our opening page, has set up a workstation on his screened porch to allow him to monitor his three-year-old digging in the backyard. His laptop screen keeps baby occupied so dad can watch two kids and get some work done while mom takes a teleconference.
Another way to take advantage of the space your home may already have is to have a guest bedroom double as a home office. With the addition of a Murphy bed and a desk, an infrequently used "bedroom" is put to work, becoming a retreat for drawing, designing, and taking video calls.
A home office near the main living space with a larger opening that can be opened up or closed down, helps to tune the connection or separation between the two areas. This “breathing” of the office into the house can be accomplished with double doors or a large barn door as shown here.
Alternatively, to allow parents to successfully concentrate on work, creating separate "kid zones" is a great strategy. A small kid-centric lounge space, customized by kids themselves with cushions, a desk and lighting, allows parents some focused time in otherwise active areas of the home. Other considerations for kid-friendly play areas include either finishing a previously unfinished basement or encouraging them to play outside.
Regardless of whether we need to shelter-in-place after this summer, the trend towards working from home has completely taken hold and will undoubtedly feature in a more flexible work environment. A more substantial, home-office solution gaining traction with a more flexible work force is the detached, backyard studio/workspace. This functions more like a typical office except conveniently located steps away from your back door.
So long as you and your family members are willing to be flexible and accommodating, there is no end to the solutions along this continuum between merging and separating home and work. Continually exploring and "trying out" new solutions and honing practices that work can bring everyone productivity, sanity, and balance.
That said, we could still use about four more hours in every day!