'People are realising the benefits and disadvantages of open-plan living' - Dermot Bannon says escape spaces and 'garden rooms' now popular

Open-plan living is proving too much for some who want proper boundaries between work and home life, writes Niamh Horan

Dermot Bannon

August 30 2020 02:30 AM

TV architect Dermot Bannon is seeing first-hand how Covid-19 is reshaping our homes - and it seems most people just want breathing space in their 'hot houses'.

The Room to Improve and Incredible Homes star said his office has been fielding requests for 'garden rooms' where people can create a boundary between work and home life.

He also describes how many remote workers are seeking out his help with designing solitary spaces so they can catch a few minutes of peace from their families.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent this weekend, he said the demise of the office has been wildly overstated.

"The one thing I am noticing from enquiries coming into the office is that people are still keeping one foot in the city, working in Dublin, while wanting to live nearby. They are all choosing places where it's easy to commute.

"What comes out in the chats is that people would love to work from home but they will still miss a city life, meeting up with people on a Friday evening, [especially] when starting off in their career and being able to meet colleagues or friends after work... I don't think we are ready to give up the office."

But as requests for home offices prove more popular for those who want a flexible office life, he says: "What I am looking at now is this whole idea of 'boundaries'.

"People are looking at trying to get that separation between work and home life. [They] are looking at garden rooms and outside spaces, somewhere you can close your back door, go to your home office and then leave it all behind."

The modern craze of 'open-plan' living is also proving too much for some in the switch to remote-working.

"People are realising the benefits and disadvantages of open-plan living," he says

Although it "works really well when the whole family is together", he says that "everyone is craving another space".

On the requests coming in to his practice, Dermot says people are asking for "a den or somewhere to go in the evening just to be by themselves."

"Family houses have become 'hot houses' over the past while as people are all crammed in together working [and] home schooling, [so] I think they are looking for small little spaces to escape to.

"People are saying, 'I don't need a big space - just somewhere small with one chair that I can head off to and watch a programme on the iPad, or read a book or do a Zoom call.' So our briefs have changed."

He also explained how home life has become a bigger focus for young people, who previously viewed it as a base.

"Younger people, who went to work and who went out socialising afterwards and just used their homes as a bed - that's not the case anymore.

"Anyone who is at home, they are in it a lot of the time so they are really focusing on what doesn't work for them anymore."

'People are realising the benefits and disadvantages of open-plan living' - Dermot Bannon says escape spaces and 'garden rooms' now popular

Open-plan living is proving too much for some who want proper boundaries between work and home life, writes Niamh Horan

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