Post Pandemic City 03: Live + Work Types

This article and drawings included are part of collaborative work done with Chris Cornelissen.

Space we Inhabit

Where We Live and Where We Work are two spaces which majority of us will inhabit most in our lives. It has taken a pandemic to raise social questions with regards to these two spaces and their relationship to one another which could not be raised before the Governments’ gradual socialisation of the economy. But currently as the State yet again (2009 bailout) comes to the fore as a key player and stakeholder to mitigate crises it becomes increasingly apparent that most financial models that constrain innovation of building types and mixes are built on flimsy foundations of short term speculation. This article with its propositions of amplified mixes is our attempt to articulate a provocation to this status quo.

While offices are encouraging workers to return to work, with a rationale that truly collaborative work environment and human interaction is what will enrich our work, our ideas and what we make, it is only natural for workers in turn to question, is the work truly collaborative, does the environment encourage human interaction, does the interaction generate new ideas? what is a "good product"?

The Craftsman

“Most of us have to work. But is work just means to an end? In trying to make a living have we lost touch with the idea of making things well? Can the desire to do a job well for its own sake -? as a template for living, work as an idea?” –The Craftsman, Richard Sennett.

?The above quote forms our aspirational compass within a rapidly changing live and work relationship. This extrapolation of future fragmentation and extreme mixed use if hinged around an aspiration of bringing “making” or “craftsmanship” back into our localized existence, we may be able to come up with building types, streets and neighbourhoods that not only mitigate the pandemic but also provide an alternative relationship between residential and commercial spaces within different neighbourhoods, or even re-establish social relationships within organizations based on guilds or workshops rather than older redundant hierarchical management structures disconnected from the “act of making”.

From the clarity of separation of residential spaces and commercial spaces, we have moved towards a condition of mixed use where we are witnessing commercial space getting fragmented into infinitesimally small cubicles, desks, rooms, mezzanines of people’s homes, garages, garden sheds across the globe in hybrid work from home model while office spaces in the city centre lie vacant (for future interpretation / speculation).

To clarify, the intent of these articles is not to provide value judgement of pre-pandemic condition vs post pandemic, but to observe, record and extrapolate possibilities…something that commercial clients and practices that cater to the market may not have the luxury of stating this as explicitly.

The Self-Sufficient City Block

We imagine the cornerstone of the city, the urban block, as the ultimate level of granularity in which our new, localised, lives will take place. The transformation of live/work can ultimately be seen as a drive towards self-sufficiency and sustainability. The city block has the capacity to incorporate new forms of living, making, learning and growing, where all the advantages of urban life (increased productivity and creativity through proximity and chance encounters) are combined with the (current) necessities of social bubbles and accelerated use of technology that allows working either from home or within walking / cycling distances.

This creates a set of questions when looking for a place to live and work:

• Does the urban block get recalibrated as an investment towards productivity (with greater use value rather than exchange value)?
• Can residential types be connected to work?
• Does mixed-use start becoming more specific in its type to serve productivity and sustainability?
• Does employment inevitably connect you with specific neighbourhoods (walking distances)?

Landscape of Making

As an experiment we have looked to develop types where residential, retail and commercial mix far more progressively to create types that may be considered to be unviable or risky in the pre-covid market, but may be considered relevant in the current circumstances.

These are just a few of the many extrapolations, built by borrowing and amplifying pre-existing trends:

• Shared kitchens in student accommodation where a space of habitation is focused towards educational living and cooking becomes a social activity binding one to the community
• Hub offices with facilities shared by a workforce that is nomadic / self employed.
• Residential types secured by policy and designed around disability and age groups
• Informal residential development across the world that allows /facilitates productivity.

As a conclusion, an honest introspection of role and value of our work life, our relationship to what we make will encourage us to explore what would be the nature of environment / neighbourhood / city that compels us to return to work (and life of dignity).