Living and working from home

How will we best work and live from home in the future?

Some people find it disastrous; others see benefits. The boundaries between work and private life have become blurred, and communication lost a certain spontaneity. At the same time, the new reality saves people hours of travelling per week and gives more freedom to organize the working day to personal needs. This brings new dynamics and challenges for which ready-made answers do not yet exist. Design can make a big difference in realizing an effective and pleasant environment to do so. Three Korean and three Dutch designers were challenged to work on the subject: Living and working from home. The designers formed teams, matching a Dutch and a South Korean design studio. During the past four months, the international teams collaborated digitally on one of the themes: workplace, public/private, and phygital. During Dutch Design Week the physical results of this digital collaboration will be on show.

The three selected design teams

Cream on Chrome x Hyunjung Kim | Tidal Space During the pandemic lockdowns, it has become clear that both care work and wage work are inseparable in the home office – as many were forced to juggle between various roles and expectations while caring and working from home. While putting the manifold needs of caring home workers front and centre, Tidal Space experiments with curtains as spatial moderators that mediate between different modes of labour. Studio Jeroen van Veluw x Studio Pesi | (Tilt / Switch / Flip) Focussing on the increasing world population, the growing number of single-person households, and a shortage of living and working space, the designers created (Tilt / Switch / Flip) a collection of three essential products for working and relaxing in the same space with the same product. Studio Kontou x Dayoung Hwang Designed a ‘space in a space’ in which people will feel good and have the choice and possibility to adjust different elements to meet their changing needs during the day. The different sensory and acoustic curtains and scents can support your desires. The modular desk stimulates different postures during the day and responds to different cultural needs. The Netherlands and South Korea are organizing various projects in 2021 to mark the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between both countries. Dutch Design Week collaborated with Seoul Design Festival on a cross-cultural design programme: Living and working from home.