HOUSTON -
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Redesigning for the future
The coronavirus pandemic has certainly changed the way we live, work and play, at home and now Houstonians are looking at ways to redesign their homes and offices fir the future.
The uncertainty around the coronavirus has homeowners and businesses looking to create spaces that feel somewhat normal amid the pandemic. There's certainly been a spike in home office furniture sales as the need to work and study from home continues. And with the start of school just weeks away parents are also looking for ways to redesign their home school space
While many businesses have taken a hit by the economic impacts of coronavirus, Mike Shelton owner of Harvard Heights construction remains booked and busy, “ We're getting a lot of calls, normally I might meet, one to three people a week, now meeting like one to three people a day. "
Shelton builds garage apartments in Houston, that gives people an option to create home offices or added space for whatever they want. He tells FOX 26, "Well, most of them are wanting to build out of existing spaces that they already have. They're wanting to do maybe In addition, also to their wanting to just be able to get out of the house and have a separate place to be able to do work or they're homeschooling."
He says the extra spaces are becoming essential. The garages take about 6 months to build. Right now they're doing 20 projects at a time."
Businesses and companies are also reevaluating how they want their offices to function. Stephanie Burritt with Gensler's , a global firm that designs corporate interiors, says clients are looking for ways to modify open offices to add social distancing, “ I think one of the biggest benefits of the open concept is that the learning that you just absorb by the experience of having sat in an open plan. And then just the collaboration the camaraderie that you build with the people around you."
Looking towards the future millennials are now exploring the idea of creating virtual offices. Stephanie Burritt explains, "some of those kinds of conversations make me think that the virtual world will be much more of an impact on our on design of a lot of different things. And, and how we interface with one another."
Some people will continue working at home well into 2021 and maybe beyond that, but Burritt believes that there will be a need for office space, "The office is definitely alive and well I just think it'll look different, you know when we come out of this.”