The unfitness of dwellings: why spatial and conceptual boundaries matter

Abstract

The boundaries of work and home are constantly evolving. Working from home challenges the prevailing understandings of what a home is supposed to be and do, and what work is. Currently, most research around working from home and architecture focuses on spatial and functional qualities of homes that facilitate work productivity, highlighting inhabitants’ struggle with integrating work in their homes. Instead of further identifying challenges, this article focuses on why these challenges have emerged. Through an interdisciplinary literature review illustrated with example homes, this article explores why contemporary work does not seem to fit in the home; how conceptions of work and home have shifted over time; and how this has affected spaces and functions of the home. Findings highlight that these shifts have rendered homes spatially and functionally ‘rigid’, and that work has slowly been excluded from the spatiality of the home. This results in dwellers having to continuously manage physical, temporal and social boundaries in their homes, a practice often found tiring and challenging. To address this, design approaches for reintroducing fluidity in the spatial logic of the home are proposed.