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Space, Buildings and the Life Worlds of Home-Based Workers: Towards Better Design

This invited article discusses the use of visual research methods in research into the architecture of home-based work.

It analyses the contribution that found artifacts can make to a developing theory of design, while acknowledging possible inherent bias in their interpretation. It discusses the use of image-making as a part of the research process may lead to a deepened understanding of design issues relating to the workhome. It discusses the use of an innovatory visual method of analysis, involving pattern-making, in which plans of 76 contemporary workhomes were drawn at the same scale and their functions colour-coded (work/home/dual-use) and then arranged and re-arranged until they formed typologies.

There was an interdisciplinary, inter-university collaboration with sociologist of home-based work, Carol Wolkowitz (University of Warwick). This collaboration developed understanding and analysis of the impact of home-based work on occupational identity, particularly in relation to the gendered visibility of such work in the built environment.

This paper was presented in a seminar on ‘Visualising Changing Landscapes of Work and Labour’ at the University of Warwick. It was also presented to the 'Working Lives Institute' at London Metropolitan University. It has led to an invitation to write a chapter in the forthcoming Routledge 'Handbook of Families in Asia', Ed Prof Stella Quah “Working from home: Redesigning the use of home space”. It has been cited in ‘Tomorrow’s Suburbs; Building Flexible Neighbourhoods’ by Jane-Frances Kelley and Peter Breardon September 2012 publ. Grattan institute. It was published in the online peer-reviewed journal Sociological Research Online [special edition Visualising the Landscape of Work and Labour] Vol. 17 Issue 2 2012.