Working from Home becomes the New Normal
Since the nation-wide lockdown due to Coronavirus in February, 2020, most offices and school were abandoned, and most Chinese white collars had no choice but working at home for two months. Working at home suddenly became the new normal, and a challenge of all of us who were not very well prepared.
We were not well prepared. From a questionnaire by Horizon, it is indicated that 33.7% Chinese interviewees felt that remote working was linked to lower efficiency, 24.5% complained about poor connection at home, 22.8% felt the remote working system were immature, and 16.1% suffered from longer working hour per day. While meetings, workshops and classes were forced to switch online, co-work APPs become spotlights.
Many Chinese residents were quite compact, and not designed with a dedicated work space. And we were reluctant to share working spaces for two working adults, as well as one or two kids that had to join online classes via tablet. These difficulties will endorse us with a great amount of time to rethink our experience at home. For example, we will require dining table and chair that can be used as ergonomically comfortable work furniture at the same time.
Peizi desk and Feast chair by Bowen Liu Studio are peaceful pieces made from walnut.
Both Mou Chair and Doric Table by grado show flexibility to be used between modern living, dinning and working space.
Privacy became another issue. We predict that tablets and earphone sales will be boosted because they are demanded for each home members. The folded fan screen by Zinlife is a small but poetic design to divide space between home workers. The paper-like DuPont Tyvek material is used to keep transparency.
Last but not the least, it is a contradiction to have a lot of time to cook, but not so much space to exercise. Keep, an online workout APP, reached its peak for download numbers during the lockdown. Can exercise be healthy and entertaining at the same time? This could lead to future innovations at home.
The original column article was published in MD design magazine in German.
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Xiaojing Huang
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