The variety of people who work from home is “fundamentally misunderstood” in a number of areas, according to architect Dr Frances Holliss from London Metropolitan University.
The specialist has explained to the Evening Standard that people use their homes for work in a huge variety of ways, and that identifying and defining these uses could help deliver new ways on planning cities and homes.
As part of her studies into working from home, Dr Holliss has compiled an online resource – dubbed the Workhome Project – which looks into how people use their houses as part of their jobs. The results of this research suggested that more than 25 per cent of people are homeworkers, which is in excess of the government estimates.
However, the type of jobs being done are incredibly different from the cliché of an individual with a laptop and a broadband connection, the paper noted. Shopkeepers, hairdressers, furniture makers and childminders represent just a small sample of the variety of jobs done from home.
Dr Holliss told the paper that anybody who is working from home for eight hours or more a week will start to see a “spatial consequence”. As a result, it is becoming increasingly necessary to consider incorporating a working area into a home. 
