Traditionally, people have lived where they worked. Examples include American Main Streets, British High Streets, and the Machiya in Japan, which allowed for a store, business, or workshop to face the street with living quarters above or behind. With the ability to transition the storefront into a private living space, the Machiya is considered the predecessor of the contemporary flex-space. Another example is the “top-shop” model, first introduced during the 17th and 18th centuries in Paris where workshops were found at the top level of homes. These attic floors would have large windows and skylights to bring in lots of natural light for workers while the living spaces were on the floors below.
For a period of about 100 years, the live-work model disappeared as urban planners addressed such issues as congestion, air pollution, and poor sanitary conditions brought upon different zones within a city by the Industrial Revolution. Working from home, or living at work, became in many cases illegal. In some places such as New York City, it wasn’t until the 1970s when laws began to change, as seen in the city’s “Joint Live-Work Quarters for Artists” zoning amendment.
The Influence of Disease and COVD-19 on Architecture
Throughout history, the built environment has transformed in response to psychological and physical reactions to disease. Likewise, there is a long tradition in architecture of retrofitting buildings for health and hygiene. For example, in New York City in 1832, a cholera outbreak attributed to the lack of clean water killed 5,000 people over the course of three months. In response, within five years, work began on the Croton Aqueduct as part of a complex regional system to supply enough water for indoor plumbing—an unheard of luxury before that time.
America’s first tuberculosis sanatorium opened in 1885 at Saranac Lake, in Upstate New York, where patients were encouraged to sit in wide, glass enclosed “cure porches” to take in natural light and fresh air. The idea of a sleeping porch or sunroom thus began to work its way into the architectural vocabulary of residential buildings from that point forward. As another example, with the onset of pollution problems created by the Industrial Revolution, local governments began to implement strict zoning laws that separated living and working spaces. This fundamentally changed how society developed as more and more people commuted to their work.
Today, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the way in which we occupy our spaces must be re-envisioned, as many find themselves working from home.