Rethinking the home office: Teleworking mothers' material housing adaptations during COVID-19

Abstract

This follow-up qualitative study delves into the contribution of housing on the material adaptations of teleworking mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation concentrates on the interplay between housing conditions, the multifaceted challenge of daily routines faced by mothers, and telework setups during stay- at-home orders. Insights from the adaptation process will inform flexible design criteria for home offices in the context of a global telework upsurge and enhance preparedness for future emergencies. Narrative accounts were gathered through 33 semi-structured Zoom interviews of teleworking mothers, supplemented by annotated architectural plans. AI-assisted discourse analysis using ChatGPT-4.0 was conducted on four groupings defined by comparable residential situations (defined along housing attributes, family structure, and work modality profiles). Floor plans, dwelling pictures from home offices or multifunctional spaces, participant profiles, and interview extracts were used for a thorough architectural assessment and for uncovering each group’s material adaptations. The findings were subsequently verified through qualitative analysis. Key design strategies for future housing projects and renovations to improve work modality transitions and telework productivity, especially when living in apartments or with small children, are the inclusion of flexible multifunctional rooms, quiet areas with foldable desks, portable home office setups for the self-employed on the move, small home offices for occasional meetings in sub-utilized storage rooms, modular and soundproof partitions temporarily separating open plans or shared home office spaces, visual partitions to demarcate private and work environments, designing office spaces in intermediate and exterior areas like verandas and balconies through the inclusion of glassed perimeters for winter use, and planning adaptable building systems.