Rooms, windows and shutters for life and work in the future

The more hours we spend in our homes, the more important it is to get the design and feel of them right.

It’s an apt time to be thinking about our living environments in a week that has seen the start of a new Channel 4 series, The Secret Life of Buildings, and an Evening Standard piece on the ‘workhomes’ of the future, which will be designed with both working and dwelling in mind.

In the UK, the number of people who work mainly from home has doubled in the last twenty years. There are social and personal benefits to avoiding a daily commute, but these can be cancelled out by the problems caused by a living space that isn’t fit for purpose.

Among the issues picked up on by the Workhome Project, initiated by Dr Frances Holliss (the architect interviewed for the Standard’s feature), is that of public-private space. A journalist might work quite happily from a spare bedroom, and the same space might seem fine for a graphic designer: but if a client wants to pay a visit to the latter’s studio, he/she might have to be led through the hallway of a family home and up the stairs, areas of the house lacking ‘professionalism’ (especially if there is the odd children’s toy in the way).

Solving this scenario would need some creative thought, but simple adaptations in bedrooms of the future, probably involving sliding doors, will separate working areas from those reserved for leisure. Downstairs, sliding covers could be pulled over kitchen units to make the space fit for doing business in.

What have shutters got to do with this?
Firstly, their value lies in their versatility. They suit both the room and the needs of the moment. You can open them wide, use them as ‘blackouts’, or let in just a little or quite a lot of light as you wish. They are perfect for keeping the glare off your computer screen as you work.

Secondly, from a company such as ours you get a bespoke service. We can’t redesign your room layout for you, but we can give you professional advice on the best shutters for you, from planning stage to completion.

For it is the lack of a personalised touch that bothers Tom Dyckhoff, presenter of The Secret Life of Buildings. He shares the view that homes will have to change to suit our 21st century lifestyles, being of the firm opinion that new homes in the UK are too small, with the windows - ‘about the size of a pizza box’ – particularly inadequate in an age when plentiful natural light is highly prized.

But at the heart of the problem, in his view, is the gap between the designers of the building and those who will eventually live in it. An office block might be built with a developer’s immediate needs in mind, with no scope for feedback from the workers who will take up residence (at the time of construction it might not be known what type of companies will one day occupy it). Similarly, in domestic homes, the emphasis might be on ‘one size fits all’, with the input of architects ending with the initial design template.

‘Workhome’ or not, your rooms have to work – for you.