Work Ready Housing

From working on the kitchen table to using a spare room as an office, Covid-19 has been transformational in the way we have rapidly had to look at the design of our home and use of indoor and outdoor space for homeworking.

On this page we bring together a selection of resources that point to how we can design our new homes more accessibly for working ftom home or adapt existing ones to create space for work. Drawing on the 'care ready' HAPPI principles, the page specifically captures 'work ready' blogs, research, policy and practice papers relevant to supporting older workers and disabled adults who either work or want to work from home and/or where work involves receiving personal care at home to support their independence.

The Housing LIN is also proud to be a founding member of the WorkHome Project (opens new window). Our involvement is through the lens of older people and disabled adults. Through research and development we aim to reach out to inform and influence policy and spread the practice of innovative approaches of home working. For example, planning reform and space standards to improve the design of homes of the future or grants for aids and equipment needed to adapt our existing homes now to make them accessible for work.

Planning for the recovery and the shift towards homeworking: implications for poverty in outer London

This report examines the short and long-term implications of Covid on poverty and inequality in outer London, with a particular focus on employment, low pay, housing and the shift towards homeworking.

Planning and responding to the demands of working from home

As Young Planners, we had been in the grips of the global pandemic for a few months, and the topic of discussion was working home.

Post Pandemic Places

This report by think tank Demos, commissioned by Legal & General, has found that areas with more remote working are likely to see higher levels of local spending, suggesting that hybrid working is key to the Government’s plans for regeneration after the pandemic.

Findings from the Housing LIN survey of home-based work in Housing Organisations

To better understand the effect of Covid-19 on the housing sector, the Housing LIN launched a survey back in the autumn of 2020 to identify and capture the impact and examples of home-based working during the first stages of the pandemic for their staff and residents, including older adults and disabled people.

Improving Opportunities: How to support social housing tenants into sustainable employment

This Housing and Social Mobility All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry report outlines the challenges facing working age tenants in finding employment, and presents recommendations for the social housing sector and government to support those looking for work.

RIBA research reveals demand for UK home transformations

Research commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects reveals a significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on how people want to live and work at home.

HAPPI Working from Home? Designing ‘work ready’ housing

This blog updates some of Jeremy Porteus' thinking captured in his April blog. Drawing on the last 6 months under lockdown, it provides an outline of how ten years since the original HAPPI report, the 10 ‘care ready’ HAPPI design principles can be recalibrated to incorporate ‘work ready’ adjustments to accommodate a growing number of people of all ages, but especially in later life, who want or will be working from home or may require live in care and support, such as personal assistant, now or in future, to meet their changing work patterns and lifestyles.

Have your say: take part in this Workhome Project survey on working from home

As a founding member of the Workhome Project (opens new window), the Housing LIN is delighted to collaborate with the project to help find out more about you and your organisation’s experience of home-based work during Covid-19 for staff and residents. Please take a few moments to complete this important sector survey. The deadline is Friday, 28 August 2020 at 4pm.

Lessons learned from Isolation During a Pandemic

This slidepack by Archadia, part of their Home of the Future programme, explores how innovation in home design and the changing behaviours of home-dwellers will improve infection-control within the home environment. Each design element featured within the pack aims to meet the requirements for the government's Home of 2030 programme - which are: accessibility, hygiene, environment and cost.

HAPPI Working from Home? Designing ‘work ready’ housing

In this blog, The Housing LIN's Jeremy Porteus explores how HAPPI can be adapted to accommodate a growing number of people of all ages working from home generally and, in particular, in the advent of coronavirus.

Room to manoeuvre? Flat sharing with work.

In this new Housing LIN blog, Assael Architect’s Tom Murphy sets out his thinking on live/work home space and calls for dramatic changes to make our homes fit for purpose. He also draws attention to a recent survey by his practice that highlights that only a quarter of respondents were able to work from home in a dedicated home office and that two-thirds of homeworkers felt lockdown was negatively impacting their mental health.

Home is where everything is

In this new guest blog for the Housing LIN, Julia Wigzell of the Pretty Good Project, explores the true impact home design has on our lives, and the opportunity for us to re-evaluate standards and design principles of age-friendly housing and designs at home post COVID-19.

Like many people all over the world right now, I’m staying at home

In this new guest blog for the Housing LIN, Julia Wood, Co-Founder of Invisible Creations, explores the true impact home design has on our lives, and the opportunity for us to re-evaluate standards and design principles of age-friendly housing and designs at home post COVID-19.

Are you ready to be isolated? Wellbeing lead approach to live/work housing

This new guest blog for the Housing LIN by Archadia Architects’ Kathryn Thomas explores the question all housing professionals have had on their mind since the start of the COVID-19 crisis: What will change after confinement?