Whether it is a personal choice or, as it sadly is the case these days, a health guideline to follow in order to protect our community, homeworking is becoming more and more popular among many kinds of workers. The dimension of the home is clearly an important factor: organizing an efficient office corner, sheltered from all the distractions caused by objects or other people, proves to be fundamental to guarantee a reasonable balance between the opportunities offered by the home office and the multiple levels of coexistence and proximity that the home inevitably holds within itself.
How to turn your home into an office in 15 easy steps
While working from home is becoming a necessity, design is offering more and more flexible solutions aimed at helping the worker to focus and, at the same time, preserving the functionality and aesthetics of the working space.
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- Giulia Zappa
- 11 March 2020
By meeting the need to make objects, times and spaces dedicated to work coexist peacefully within the home, the home reacts by becoming elastic and regulating the boundary between digital life and domestic activities with flexible solutions. Though less orthodox than we would have thought ten years ago, these new offices inside the home demonstrate first and foremost that they can adapt to the needs of individuals, transforming themselves into informal workstations, allowing the worker to plan the organization of his or her work, and to use of bright colors and materials that make the home office a space open to improvisation.
We have selected fifteen projects that address the potential of domestic smart working with originality and new pragmatism. Many are the design aspects invested in this research: from the efficiency of square meters thanks to the flexibility of pieces of furniture that appear and disappear, to the newfound ergonomics that tries to preserve us from a life of immobility in front of the screen, to container furniture to which we can entrust our most valuable belongings and, why not, thoughts that it is increasingly necessary to be able to protect.
A futuristic-looking hemispherical screen attached to the side of an apparently "normal" wooden table: its function is to create a private and sheltered space for the person working at the desk, protecting their privacy but at the same time shielding their field of vision to avoid unnecessary distractions. Designed by Dutch designer Hella Joungerius, Sphere Table has been in Vitra's catalogue since 2012, thus updating its historic catalogue of office furniture with pieces capable of meeting the needs of the contemporary working world.
Island is a flexible storage unit that allows you to store all the objects related to the sphere of work in a very small space. Consisting of a perforated steel panel supported by a tubular metal structure, it is equipped with some hooks to hang clothes, while the containers fixed to the perforated steel panel can store computers and notebooks. Island can be customized according to taste and needs, and it can be placed vertically or horizontally and also cantilevering.
Read the project Island on Domus
Designed, as the name implies, as a solution to hack the traditional office space with a flexible solution, Hack stands out for the beautiful design of its three raw wooden panels, which give it an informal look, and for the possibility of manually adjusting the height of the work surface. At the same time, Hack can be disassembled in a few simple steps and stored in an extremely small space in case a dedicated workspace is no longer needed.
Read the project Hack on Domus
Originally developed as a concept table for the Orgatec office furniture fair in Cologne, this multilayer panel worktable was designed to accommodate large circular wooden whiteboards that act as a divider. Once finished working, the panels can be stored, clearing the space and restoring a so-called "normality".
Designed to combine versatility and rationalization of the workspace, this system of shelving and furniture in aluminium offers multiple pieces that, combined, allow to manage in an integrated way the coexistence of storage units and work surfaces. The little details, from the management of cables to the filing of manual instruments or notes, contributes to orchestrate the efficiency of this new office platform that is well suited, thanks to a studied colour palette, to fit into the home environment without ever looking boring.
For those who are not afraid to see their productivity negatively affected by laid-back working methods, Vitra produced a large sofa designed to accommodate workers more interested in an informal working style. Supporting surfaces inserted between the seats allow you to place laptops and personal items, while the dividers help to create some sort of cozy cocoon.
Developed as a graduation project, Grafeiphobia focuses on the needs of all those people who, most of the time because of personal preferences, love to work from their beds. Iron or wooden structures, with padded components, allow you to work laying on your back as well as on your stomach, supporting the body in NASA's Neutral Body Position. The choice of electric blue and pink, complemented by neutral colors such as cream white, gray and airborne, helps to bring vitality to the domestic environment.
To collect your thoughts by temporarily isolating yourself from those around you, Belgian designer Alain Gilles has developed a system of soundproofing layers that protect us visually and acoustically from all environmental stimuli. The height and the finish of the elements, including acoustic fabrics from Kvadrat's catalogue, can be customized according to your needs. The co-presence of the metal and fabric structure gives a visual complexity that adapts well to the decorative needs of the home environment.
Read the project BuzziBracks on Domus
The first piece of the robotic furniture line that Ikea is preparing to launch in 2020, is a bed, a desk, a wardrobe and a sofa at the same time. Launched for the first time in Asia, where the presence of capsule studios or houses is particularly common, this solution saves about 8 square meters of space. Read the project Rognan on Domus
The central table stands out as a versatile solution, which serves both as a dining table and an office desk. The wall-mounted tabletop can be used as a temporary storage space or as an additional workspace if required. Read the project on Domus
A custom-made room divider integrated into the domestic space serves as a curtain to separate those who work from the passageways, doubling as shelves for books or furnishing accessories. Read this project on Domus
For those who cannot work but on the sofa, the many small low tables serve as shelves for laptops and notebooks, while the surrounding space does not give in to the temptation to change the "tone" of the space, rejecting the more serious and predictable register of the office. Read this project on Domus
For those who prefer monastic environments as spaces for recollection, a loft in the attic is ideal for removing all visual stimuli, promoting concentration while enjoying the benefits of direct exposure to light. Read the project on Domus
A wall between two windows allows you to organize a dedicated workspace where table and shelves concentrate in a single spot everything you need to fulfill your daily work commitments. All around, domestic vitality bursts in through the preeminence of vegetation and the views of the other rooms of the house. Read the project on Domus
If sitting for too long on the wrong chair is likely to ruin our health on the long run, Smarin's sChaise promises to reverse the trend by giving us the chance to do some real sitting exercises while we work. Unlike ordinary chairs, the elastic bands that form the base of the sChaise are designed together with doctors and physiotherapists to promote the mobility of the pelvis and spine, helping to revitalise the body's wellbeing in the long term.