Designing your home for working and living

For many employees here and around the world, home has become their office. PHOTO: ST FILE

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, home was a refuge from the rigours of the office, where you could return to after a hard day's work to unwind.

But for many employees here and around the world, home has become their office as the coronavirus continues to spread and strict social distancing measures are imposed.

On Wednesday, the Singapore Government said that employers who do not allow staff to work from home where possible could be jailed or fined.

How is the pandemic impacting home design, and how we will live and work in the future?

That is what CatchOn, a company of the United States-headquartered Finn Partners communications group, will be discussing in a free webinar live from Hong Kong on Wednesday, 3pm. It will be moderated by CatchOn's founder and managing director, Ms Catherine Feliciano-Chon.

The panel of experts includes Mr James J.J. Acuna, creative director of J.J. Acuna Bespoke Studio, who is based in Hong Kong and Manila; Ms Suzy Annetta, editor-in-chief of Design Anthology magazine headquartered in Hong Kong and Melbourne; and Ms Rowena Gonzales, founder of Liquid Interiors, an eco-conscious interiors firm in Hong Kong.

Mr Acuna, whose Hong Kong studio started work-from-home arrangements since early February, says it was easy for his studio to react as it is a nimble outfit, with mostly millennial and Gen-Z designers who take naturally to the new arrangements.

Also, 100 per cent of the design files are on the cloud, so workflow is relatively seamless.

"We do miss seeing each other and working very close together, but I find my designers are designing well, if not even better, working from home," says Mr Acuna.

"However, clients and landlords in the co-working and co-living spaces will have to think twice about the value of fitting in as many people as possible to 'maximise efficiency'."

Increasingly, he adds, clients and designers will have to have real conversations about well-ventilated spaces, allowing more staff to work from home and redesigning office spaces and corporate hubs to function more as living rooms and lifestyle spaces.

"Meeting rooms should be reserved only for essential gatherings," he says.

• To join the webinar, log on to bit.ly/2wYj4Jy

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 04, 2020, with the headline Designing your home for working and living. Subscribe