Working from home can now come complete with style, peace and a curtain-twitching-worthy contraption in the garden, thanks to the Archipod.
When I work, I have to be in both the right frame of mind and the right space. Clutter and disorder equals being distracted and ultimately: procrastination. As a result, I will dust, tidy and potter until my surroundings are more conducive to a working mind-set. Procrastinating time well spent if you will: apart from the dint in my day and the uncanny similarity of events in store tomorrow. If only I had a bubble in my garden, permanently ready for work, to escape to…
The Archipod or ‘Pod’ seems to be the ideal solution for homeworkers who need a designated space and a talking point in the garden. An innovative garden office design, it could as easily be used as a chill-out den, playroom, outside function room or music studio as it could an office. Pods are tailor made to size and individual requirements; the standard Archipod has a 2.9 metre diameter at its widest point and is 2.5 metres tall, allowing a decent insulated working space with a made to measure, curved ergonomic desk built in. The shape of the Pod and the natural light spilling in through the domed roof means Pods feel spacious beyond their vital stats, not unlike a modern day TARDIS.
While the motivationally-challenged homeworkers will doubtless be placing their Archipod orders immediately, it’s more the environment the Archipod’s creators are trying to help out with their design than tackling the bugbears associated with working from home. While commuters battle the roads and face lengthy journeys on public transport riddled with delays, commuter-related air and other pollution doesn’t help the environment one bit. The aim is to encourage more people to work from home, cutting out the need to commute altogether and the associated hit the environment takes. The fact that workers have more time, less commuting induced stress and convenient garden to kitchen coffee and sandwich runs is a mere, if significant, bonus.
As long as you have a garden, an Archipod has to be a worthwhile investment for homeworkers. With no need to turn the spare bedroom into an office in already space-pressured households and the ability to still go to work and escape domestic distractions, productivity and output must surely increase exponentially in an Archipod. Simultaneously building the bridge between work time and family time, yet physically separating them for maximum productivity, is what the Archipod is all about.
Research into productivity related to workspace shows that it’s highly important to construct the right workspace for your working style. Key factors seem to focus on light and space as well as adding a few domestic touches: making your workspace personal to you, without moving the kitchen sink from house to Pod of course. Ultimately, it’s important to remember that your workspace is your living space for much of your day; it must be liveable and workable. The Archipod can be personalised to your taste and working style because, quite frankly, it’s yours and not just a desk in someone else’s office. It’s the Archipod’s key features, such as the window of natural light coming in through the domed roof, the fact that you could work with the door open on a warm day and be right in the middle of your garden that makes the Archipod a productive working space. It certainly beats a few ubiquitous office potted plants and the stubbornly closed windows of a high-rise office block.
Personally I think the Pods are a great long-term investment, costing from £15,000. While employers might not be quite ready to send us all home to work from our Pods with the sole purpose of saving the environment just yet, the increasingly flexible and technological age in which we live means more of us will be able to work from home over the coming years. It’s the gull wing door that does it for me – I can definitely picture one landing in my garden someday soon.
