Has Domestic Interior Design Strategy Caught Up With The Internet Company Explosion?

It’s not exactly a new idea this, arguably common decision, to work from home. As such, one would imagine that seeing an opportunity, residential products, services, design and even houses would have begun to adapt to the ever increasing wishes of a swelling body of possible customers who want to work from home. These people who are working in an Internet Business through online jobs have a need for an atmosphere that corresponds with their everyday life and their work needs too.

It’s true, there are a number of products on the market that are aimed at those people who Work From Home but it’s fair to say that the offer is fragmented and it takes a level of skill in construction, IT and ergonomics to produce a suitable domestic atmosphere from which one could run an internet organisation. Most people only manage to provide a small amount of the facilities needed to be comfortable and productive.

The brief for a home office set up should be basically similar to that of a normal office or corporate workspace. A resident staff member requires power, data and a place to sit and a surface to work on as a bare minimum. Add into that the requirement for social interaction, ad hoc meetings, cooperation and areas for detailed working and the brief starts to look very similar.

The easy and least productive resolution to meeting these requirements is to provide a desk, seat, computer, telephone and data cable. On the face of it these items of kit will provide the necessary vehicle in (or on, or through) which people can deliver their output. The real question is how does one provide for the rest of the criteria and how do we use advances in construction and IT to support the requirements for people who work in Online Jobs?

Firstly, let’s handle the workplace itself. Does it need to be a desk? In a standard domestic situation would a desk be a fitting piece of furniture ? Technology gives us laptops and telephone headsets and the capacity to work anywhere on any fittings. Add to that wireless printing and a web cam and really the office, as was, is now built completely around the person in contrast to a location.

Of course, in these days of corporate responsibility, the idea of using a laptop for long periods of time would give Human Resource and Insurance teams a problem, but the reality is that what we have through technology is a new concept and what we would expect to see is new furniture designs to solve the ergonomic issues.

Secondly, there is the matter of privacy, noise and environmental comfort. A voice conference in a home full of playing children is not encouraging to productive work. Will we begin to see new houses provided with separate space for working? Possibly offered as an extension, a loft or even a stand alone unit in the garage.

Whatever the solutions the market is there already and the building industry has yet to react to it.