Merrett Houmøller Architects worked with parents-to-be Karen and Dan to create a new home for them and their future family. At the early stages of design, we discussed family living, entertaining, child care, community and working from home, via separate but connected spaces within the house. All long before Covid. 
 
The seeds were being sown of a (humbly radical) vision about a new way to live and work, dealing with the issue that causes so much tension for so many parents: balancing work (plus long hours and commuting), with childcare (and being there for your children and watching them grow and develop). 
 
The result was a new family home, parts of which double as a calm co-working space for a community of parents, and a micro Montessori nursery, ‘Playhood’, located in the back garden for their children.
 
The main house was refurbished and extended with multiple interconnected-yet-separate spaces for living, socialising and working, on the upper and lower ground floors, all bathed in natural light. Merrett Houmøller also designed the garden building, and Playhood’s founder Karen Partridge worked with specialists in Montessori design for the fit out. 

Initially, client and founder Karen anticipated a niche demographic: local, self-employed new parents who perhaps previously worked from home, but now wanted to get out of the house and draw a line between work and home time. Since Covid however, Karen notes that people from a multitude of backgrounds, who would never have considered working in a space like this, have joined the community. People need the option to socialise, and they need to get out of the house. The space not only creates an environment conducive to good work, but the social aspect allows for ideas to be bounced around, to be cross fertilized, and this is generally good for productivity as well as mental health. Add to this their children being nearby, and it has allowed some parents to live and work in ways that previously would not have been possible. 
 

Working (at least some of the time) in small, local workplaces can offer an array of lifestyle benefits. In centrally based offices, co-workers live all over London and surrounding areas, whereas local working can offer opportunity to become part of a local network, or community of people, as well as benefiting from less time spent commuting and therefore having more time to see friends and family. But we need a variety of workplaces to suits individuals needs - Playhood has proved that these niche requirements can be catered for - we need more spaces like this. Or rather we need more workspaces that cater for all varieties of individuals requirements.   

Find out more about the Playhood project