BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 
Volume 18 (2022)  
 

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Design of home office residence in the post-Covid-19 Era 
Peng Wu, Xin Fu 

College of art and design, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China 

Abstract. Recently, due to the impact of the COVID-19, in order to prevent the spread, most people 
need to stay at home for isolation and cannot go to work. At this time, many companies choose to 
let employees work at home. In the future, there will be more and more home office people. Starting 
with the background of home office, the research status of home office at home and abroad, and the 
concept of home office, this paper carries out a series of studies to explore the design of modern 
home office residential space. Through practice and design cases, it makes it meet the reasonable 
and compatible needs of home office, makes a conclusion, and prospects the development trend of 
home office in the future. 

Keywords: The post-Covid-19 Era; Work from home; Residential design. 

1. Introduction 
Nowadays, with the rapid development of science and technology, people's lives are also changing, 

and their working methods have become diverse. The highly developed information age allows 
people to communicate and talk without gathering together. The fixed mode of going to the company 
for office, negotiation with customers, meetings and other modes have been gradually broken, and 
the office forms have become diversified and practical. In the traditional concept, home and office 
have their own frequency, and there is almost no intersection between the two. For an ordinary office 
worker, he has to shuttle back and forth between them every day, which wastes a certain amount of 
space and time, increases the waste of energy, and makes people more tired. Therefore, if we can 
combine the two, It enables people to complete their work with their own computers and other 
equipment at home, which not only reduces the waste of space and time, but also enables people to 
work in their own comfortable environment and reduces the boredom of the office. And now, with 
the normalization of the epidemic, more and more people work at home. With the continuous growth 
of the team, the needs of people working at home have also been exposed. It is necessary to explore 
a reasonably compatible residential design between home and office. 

2. Characteristics of home office residence 

2.1 Composition of home office residential space 
A home office residence should include bedroom, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, living room, 

studio, study and other spaces. Each space should be clearly distinguished in design, not interfering 
with each other and reasonably compatible. 

Bedroom: first of all, the bedroom should be private. There is a certain space for transition with 
the living room, and it should be placed in a quiet area to ensure better rest quality. The bedroom area 
is also worth considering. It should not be too small to avoid depression, and it should be considered 
for the future. In terms of lighting, full consideration should also be given. Sufficient light can also 
improve the residents' living experience. 

Kitchen: the kitchen area should be fully considered so that users can safely enjoy the feeling of 
cooking. The kitchen streamline should be reasonable and arranged according to storage, cleaning 
and operation to ensure the smooth cooking process and improve the use efficiency. Both open 
kitchen and closed kitchen have good characteristics. Open kitchen can fully display the charm of 
cooking and adapt to the trend of modernization. Closed kitchen can avoid the impact on other spaces 
during cooking. 

Restaurant: the restaurant is usually close to the kitchen, which will be very convenient. In the 
home office residence, the function of the restaurant in the external reception should also be taken 



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into account to provide a comfortable dining environment for visitors when receiving guests for 
dinner. 

Living room: the living room generally also undertakes part of the traffic area of the residence, 
which can reduce a certain traffic occupation area. In addition, it should fully consider whether the 
door opening, window, balcony and other positions are appropriate, otherwise it will affect the layout 
of furniture, and finally lead to a waste of space. Lighting should also be fully considered to avoid 
too dark indoors. 

Toilet: the general toilet should have three functions, namely, washing, showering and squatting. 
If conditions permit, it is best to achieve dry and wet separation, which can greatly improve the use 
efficiency and do not interfere with each other. And the distance from the bedroom and other spaces 
should be considered when setting the toilet. 

Studio: one of the important spaces for people who work at home, without too many rules and 
regulations, so as to make work more efficient. There is a lot of time to stay inside every day, so the 
lighting part needs to be taken into account, and the working environment should be comfortable and 
appropriate, which can make people relax inside and burst out more inspiration when working. 

There are other auxiliary spaces, such as balconies, storage rooms, etc. Although the area is a little 
smaller than others, it is still an important role in life.In short, regardless of the size of the residential 
space, it is necessary to meet the basic living needs, reasonably plan the distribution space, and design 
the residential space to meet the needs of the home office crowd. 
 

2.2 Characteristics of home office functional space 
2.2.1 Multilevel 

In traditional residences, the study is used for people to learn to read. In home office residences, 
the study is not only used to learn to read, but also added to the office, and the area will change. 
Among them, it is not only necessary to meet the office functions, but also to add the reception 
function, which can create a good communication environment for office workers. In terms of 
bedrooms, the difference between primary and secondary bedrooms is becoming smaller and smaller, 
and the area difference is almost small, reducing the area of rest and increasing the space for office 
storage. Home office needs to increase external exchanges to achieve business purposes. In terms of 
receiving guests, restaurants are particularly important. They promote work through pleasant 
conversations during meals and create multi-level communication opportunities for office workers. 
2.2.2 Variability 

The home office residence has broken the unchanging space layout of the traditional residence. 
With the addition of the office nature, the space that is not limited by the original wall division is 
more changeable, and is more favored by the home office crowd. The variability of the home office 
residence space can be realized through flexible furniture layout, partition or some decorations, which 
adds the possibility to realize the space requirements of the home office crowd. 
2.2.3 Openness 

Home office housing should be open in office, because home office, like office outside, also needs 
exchanges and exchanges. In the design, it should not be too closed, too blocking the line of sight, 
and the light cannot penetrate. It should create an open space with a sense of transparency and 
freshness, and provide more communication and more humanized design for office people. 

3. Characteristics of home office residence 

3.1 Principle of integrity 
A complete home office residential space should have all kinds of space needed for home and 

office. How to effectively distribute the proportion of each space area and how to coordinate each 



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space relationship harmoniously, we should complete it from the perspective of integrity. The living 
room, living room, kitchen, dining room, office and working room, meeting room and other spaces 
need to be divided as a whole, so as to facilitate the use of home office people. 

3.2 Humanization principle 
The ideal living temperature is 26 ℃. You can't feel the cold and heat, so that the comfort of home 

comes naturally. The ideal living space should be that each area of life is clearly distributed, the order 
of use is natural, and you can have your own entertainment space. It is beautiful to relax after work. 
The ideal home and work environment should have a comfortable area, various work-related 
equipment, entertainment and relaxation after rest, and an environment where customers can talk 
freely when they arrive. 

3.3 Individualization principle 
Part of the reason for the emergence of people who work at home is that they want to get rid of the 

boring traditional office mode. People need touching personalized design, which can highlight 
themselves, show their personality characteristics, and be more active at work. In order to realize their 
ideas and show their value, they need to break the conventional mode, keep up with the trend of the 
times, reflect their unique personality and attract customers. 

3.4 Adaptability principle 
In the traditional residential design, the division of space is relatively uniform, and the 

characteristics are almost the same, which does not highlight a certain space. The home office type 
residence is not only used for living, but also adds the attribute of office. The home office people not 
only need a comfortable living environment, but also need to meet the needs of work. Therefore, 
when designing the home office type residence, they need to comply with the trend of the market, 
meet the needs of people who work at home. 

4. Conclusion 
This paper mainly studies the home office housing design in the post epidemic era. With the 

normalization of the epidemic, the home office population will continue to increase. The traditional 
housing design can no longer meet the needs of the home office population, so it is necessary to study 
and explore the design of the home office housing. 

There are many home office residences, but there are still some problems. For example, due to 
home office, people travel less and their health needs to be considered. And face-to-face 
communication with people may be less, and interpersonal relationships will gradually fade. The 
development of every kind of thing is accompanied by advantages and disadvantages. Since the home 
office residence exists, it also has its advantages, and the problems can be solved in the long river of 
time. 

The style of the residential office space makes good use of the natural light source, which not only 
creates changes and breeds the indoor atmosphere, but also makes the existence of night and day more 
meaningful, and tells the emotions of the four seasons in the depth of view. Irregular height and shape 
design seems to be its surging artistic inspiration. Laser lights, spotlights, etc. form a psychedelic 
light. The light and shadow change with the music. Sometimes they are projected on dark wallpapers, 
and sometimes on modern pure color walls, so that the working atmosphere can vary from person to 
person. Classical wallpapers and bright colors form a resonance of contradiction and harmony, "just 
like the process of making movies, you will find that people need a dramatic contradiction, but also 
hope to find a harmonious point in the contradiction". 

This paper also starts from the background and research status of home office, through a series of 
consulting and research, analyzes the psychological and functional needs of home office people, and 
understands the characteristics of home office housing, such as the functional composition and 



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characteristics of home office space. Sort out the design principles of home office space, and finally 
describe the design methods of home office space according to the principles. 

In the future, there will be more and more home office people. With the progress of the times, 
there will be more new designs for home office houses. We will continue to explore on this road, and 
there will be problems to solve. After the research and exploration, we will summarize and put 
forward ideas and suggestions to pave the way for future research. 

References 
[1] Guangyuan Gao, Exploration of modern home office residence [D].2007 
[2] Baoshi Yang, Research on home office space design [D].2019 
[3] Yun Chen, Research on SOHO space design [D].2014 
[4] Jingyi Qu, SOHO research on interior design combining office and home [D].2014 
[5] Li Ma,Research on SOHO pattern space design [D].2013 

 


	1. Introduction
	2. Characteristics of home office residence
	2.1 Composition of home office residential space
	2.2 Characteristics of home office functional space
	2.2.1 Multilevel
	2.2.2 Variability
	2.2.3 Openness


	3. Characteristics of home office residence
	3.1 Principle of integrity
	3.2 Humanization principle
	3.3 Individualization principle
	3.4 Adaptability principle

	4. Conclusion
	References