It’s not exactly a new phenomenon this, arguably common option, to work from home. As such, one would suppose that seeing an opportunity, residential products, services, design and even homes would have started to adjust to the ever increasing needs of a swelling body of prospective customers who wish to work from home. These people who are working in an Internet Business through online jobs have a need for an atmosphere that matches their lifestyle and their work needs too.

It’s true, there are a number of products on the market that are produced for those people who Work From Home but it’s fair to say that the offer is scrappy and it takes a level of skill in construction, IT and ergonomics to form a suitable domestic atmosphere from which one could run an internet company. Most people only manage to provide a small amount of the facilities needed to be comfortable and dynamic.

The brief for a home office set up should be generally similar to that of a normal office or corporate workspace. A resident staff member needs power, data and a place to sit and a surface to work on as a bare minimum. Add into that the need for social interaction, ad hoc meetings, cooperation and areas for focussed working and the brief starts to look very similar.

The easy and least productive answer to meeting these needs is to provide a desk, chair, pc, telephone and data connection. On the face of it these items of kit will provide the necessary vehicle in (or on, or through) which people can deliver their output. The real question is how does one provide for the rest of the criteria and how do we use developments in construction and technology to support the requirements for people who work in Online Jobs?

Firstly, let’s deal with the workplace itself. Does it need to be a desk? In a typical domestic situation would a desk be an appropriate piece of furniture ? Technology gives us laptops and telephone headsets and the capability to work anywhere on any fixtures. Add to that wireless printing and a web cam and really the office, as was, is now built wholly around the person as opposed to a location.

Of course, in these days of corporate responsibility, the idea of using a laptop for long periods of time would give Personnel and Insurance teams a problem, but the truth is that what we have through technology is a new idea and what we would expect to see is new furniture solutions to solve the ergonomic issues.

Secondly, there is the matter of privacy, sound and environmental comfort. A voice conference in a apartment full of playing children is not encouraging to productive work. Will we begin to see new homes provided with remote space for working? Possibly offered as an extension, a loft or even a stand alone unit outside.

Whatever the solutions the market is there already and the construction industry has yet to react to it.