Has Home Interior Design Thinking Caught Up With The Internet Organisation Explosion?

It’s not exactly a new trend this, arguably common option, to work from home. As such, one would imagine that seeing an opportunity, residential products, services, design and even homes would have started to adapt to the ever increasing wishes of a growing body of budding customers who would like to work from home. These people who are working in an Internet Business through online jobs have a need for an atmosphere that suits their way of 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 reasonable to say that the offer is patchy 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 business. Most people only manage to provide a small amount of the facilities necessary to be comfortable and dynamic.

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

The easy and least productive solution to meeting these requirements is to provide a desk, chair, 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 advancements in construction and IT to support the requirements for people who work in Online Jobs?

Firstly, let’s tackle the workplace itself. Does it need to be a desk? In a standard domestic situation would a desk be a suitable piece of furniture ? Technology gives us laptops and telephone headsets and the capacity to work anywhere on any fixtures. Add to that wireless printing and a web cam and really the office, as was, is now built totally 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 Personnel and Insurance teams a problem, but the fact is that what we have through technology is a new concept and what we would expect to see is new furniture ideas to solve the ergonomic issues.

Secondly, there is the issue of privacy, sound 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 homes provided with isolated space for working? Possibly provided as an extension, a loft or even a stand alone unit in the garden.

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