Working at home: tactics to reappropriate the home

Abstract

During industrialisation, work and home were mentally and physically divided. Nevertheless, homes are important workspaces. However, contemporary homes are not designed to accommodate work, and the home as a space of work has received scant attention from architectural scholarly work. How homeworkers navigate the spatial constraints of contemporary homes and create their workspaces remains underexplored. This paper investigates the tactics individuals in Finland employ to appropriate the home and create workspaces. It is based on a qualitative, in-depth multiple case-study comprised of home visits, interviews, and visual and spatial documentation. Findings discuss three key tactics homeworkers employ to appropriate the home and create workspaces: positioning work at home, creating workspaces with objects, and by choreographing spaces into being with their body. Findings inform the design of future homes as sites where dwelling and work intertwine and highlight the importance of planning highly qualitative indoor and outdoor environments to support all sorts of work at home.