Designing Healthy and Productive Working Spaces at Home: Home Office

Nowadays working from 🏡 has become an essential part of everyday life for most people. This current situation has made us reevaluate the things that we thought were taken for granted and now, we have to build, new ways to work and be productive at home. But working from home is not a tendency that started since the COVID 19 outbreak, it has started a couple of years ago since companies are realizing that they don't need a physical space to work together and this outbreak has reinforced that tendency. Things are likely to change after the outbreak and more companies will keep the home office, to have fewer physical spaces, which translates into fewer costs.

We decided to write this article to teach you, how design makes a healthy and productive working space at home. There are some basic principles that we listed below.

Firstly, we are going to define what are the things that make a HEALTHY WORKING SPACE. Now, we want you to picture or imagine and think, for you what does a healthy space mean? Leave your answers in the comments below. At Marmaroph, we have some key design elements for a healthy space and how that affects our physical and mental health.

NATURAL LIGHT :

Natural light is one of the most important elements in every working space. Having access to direct natural light or direct sunlight helps us keep our circadian rhythms in check. The Circadian Rhythm is the internal clock of our bodies. It controls when we fall asleep and when we wake, it also controls our feeding patterns and many other functions, so to keep those functions working well and keeping you healthy, natural light is essential. (If you want to learn more about this topic go to our sustainable article here)

OUTDOOR SPACE:

We are well aware that nowadays, it's not possible to have a courtyard or a garden if we live in a city, but we understand the importance of having an outdoor space and that's something that has been showing up during this quarantine. People need to be in contact with outdoor spaces to relax, take a break, and receive direct sunlight. Don't get us wrong, being underneath the direct sunlight for a long period, damages your skin cells thanks to the UVB rays. However, we do need those rays to allow our bodies to make the chemical and metabolic chain reaction that produces vitamin D, which it's important for your bones, blood cells, and immune system, according to Harvard Health. So, we do need to have a little bit of exposure to keep us healthy. As Marmaroph knows this, we design central courtyards and outdoor spaces for our homes using our modular architecture on the outskirts of cities, residential areas, or countryside. In cities, on the other hand, we design rooftops and also balconies that can have direct sunlight.

GREENER ENVIRONMENTS:

Having contact with nature 🌱brings a peaceful state of mind and keeps our mental health in check. That's why, unconsciously or consciously, we are always looking for ways to connect with nature. How do you feel being in a green environment that has vertical gardens, indoor plants, or even trees? A house that it's in the middle of the Woods, a tropical rain forest, or even the beach is surrounded by natural landscapes, but what about the city? Well, in Marmaroph we like to bring that nature to our cities, even if it’s with indoor plants, vertical walls, or green rooftops to keep everyone’s mental health.

FLEXIBLE FURNITURE:

Different people, different furniture. Everyone has a different style of working. Some people nowadays working at home, prefer to work standing up or sitting down. However, it’s very important to keep a balance between them. There are a lot of hidden risks of sitting down, you may not know, according to TED-ED. Human Begins are made to move, not the other way around. While we are sitting, we tend to curve our back and that position puts pressure on our spine. Also, it shrinks our lungs cavity, which means lungs have less space to expand and therefore less oxygen flows to our lungs and hence our Brain. If we have less oxygen in our brains, we are less productive. But on the other hand, you will get tired, if you work standing up, all day long. So, it's our job with MACERIE by MARMAROPH to create furniture that it's flexible that adapt, so you can work either way comfortably. (To learn more about Macerie, go to our article here)

Now we're going to define some of the elements that make our PRODUCTIVE WORKING SPACE at home.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT:

There are mainly two types of artificial light colors. The warm light and the cold light are depending on the mood you want to achieve, you use either. In this case, working from home or even working at your office, it's essential to have the right amount of luxes (unit to measure light or illumination) coming from a cold light. We should use a cold light because it keeps us alert and that in our brain is what makes us productive. (If you want to learn more of the light in architecture, click here)

TEMPERATURE:

Imagine working in a cold or too warm space, it would be awful, isn’t it? That’s why, it's so important to have the right temperature in every space, not just working at home. Having the right temperature is essential to make us productive because we're not using the energy to heat or to cool us down. Instead, we're using that energy to concentrate on the task that we're doing. Marmaroph knows this, and that's why we’ve created walls, roofs, and floors with insulating layers and air chambers in our windows to keep the internal temperature of indoor space at a normal temperature not too hot nor too cold, without the need of using excessive heating or cooling from air conditioning and fans.

ACOUSTICS:

Some of the people working at home find it important to have a quiet space with absolutely no noise, so they can concentrate. That's why we use materials that absorb the sound like cotton and avoid materials that reflect the sound in working spaces. Those materials can be used in the rugs, the walls, the ceilings, the chairs, cushions, etc. Using these materials means that you're not going to have Eco’s when you make calls or when you're having video calls and if you want a quiet space sound won’t disturb you, so you are going to be comfortable and productive! The contrary happens when we use reflecting materials. As an example of this, have you ever call someone or even do a video call in the bathroom, and actually, people start asking you if you are in the bathroom? that happens because bathrooms are small spaces and they also have materials that reflect the sound and causes reverberation, mainly because they are made of ceramic, marble, stone, glass, and some similar materials. You may be wondering, what is reverberation? Well, Sound are acoustic waves that travel through a medium, such as gas, water, air, among others. To hear clear the sound, nothing must disturb the wave but when it's reflected that sound wave is distorted and decayed and that’s why we don’t hear well or we hear murmurs.

Well, that's all for now! But if you are interested and want to know more about some topics that we’ve mentioned above, you can read other articles that talk about them more deeply, so go ahead, we’ll love it if you learn more about architecture and well of course Marmaroph! If you are looking for a new project because you want to move out and want a dream office space, we are the right choice. If have any questions or would like to buy or quote a project, don't be afraid and contact us, we are looking forward to knowing you and help you!

We would love it if you take some of your precious time and leave us responses to the questions!

We keep investigating and learning more about our customers' and users' lifestyles, in order to design spaces that truly adapt to people. That is why we would like to know more about you!

1. What does a Healthy and Productive space mean to you?

2. How do you Imagine healthy spaces and what they mean to you?

3. What are the most essential things to have at your 🏡home office?

4. What are some features you would love 💕 from at-home office furniture?

5. What type of plants 🌱 do you like the most?