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.

The RIBA’s research exclusively reveals that the majority of homeowners (70% of survey respondents) believe the design of their home has affected their mental wellbeing during the pandemic. Spending more time in their home has made people more stressed (11%), anxious (10%) and depressed (10%); they’ve found it harder to relax (9%) and it’s negatively impacted their productivity (6%).

The findings also highlight that 23% believe a better-designed home will increase their happiness; they'd be able to relax more (31%) and sleep better (17%). Insights also revealed that with working from home now the ‘new normal’ for many, 15% want to improve the design of their home to help them be more productive. And with families spending more time together at home, more than one in 10 (11%) believe making changes to the design of their home would help them to live more harmoniously with others in the house.

Of particular interest, 8 out of 10 respondents (79%) identified one or more of the changes that they’d now like to make to the design of their home after lockdown (click on the link below to read the summary).

And if you found this of interest, read Jeremy Porteus’ recently updated Housing LIN guest blog on designing to ‘work ready’ HAPPI principles here (opens new window).