50 steps to work
When people ask me how far I travel to get to the office every day, my answer usually gets a look of disbelief: “About 50 steps from my house.”
And this is true. I have long seen the value of time, and having my office this close to home has given me a lot of advantages. I can go home for lunch and dinner. If I need to work longer, I can do it very early in the morning or late at night without
worrying about the trip home.
During the rainy season, I do not have to get soaked waiting for a ride or wade through flooded streets to get to work. It makes me wonder why we do not design more developments around this simple idea.
A new opportunity
For many of us, home and work are in completely different places. We build residential communities in one area, business districts in another, and then spend a significant part of each day moving people between the two.
Perhaps we should not only be asking how to make commuting faster. We should also ask how we can make commuting less necessary.
Some developers are already experimenting with mixed-use buildings that combine residential units and office floors. We are more familiar with developments that put homes, shops and restaurants together, but there is still an opportunity to include flexible office spaces for small businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs.
Working from home, after all, does not work for everyone.
Close to home
More people are becoming comfortable living in compact spaces, and setting up a desk at home is easy enough. But running a business from home is another matter.
For families with children or pets, receiving clients, conducting meetings or accommodating staff can become awkward and intrusive. There should still be some separation between family life and business. This is why I prefer having a separate office—just very close to home.
Imagine living in a building where you can have your residence on one floor and lease or own a small office several floors away. You can walk to work without bringing the office into your living room. You can attend an early meeting, go home for lunch, return to work and still easily be with your family for dinner.
Flexible workspaces
There is also the question of flexibility.
Offices have different requirements. A consultant may need only a small room and meeting space. A growing business may need several workstations, storage or a larger conference room.
Developments that provide different office sizes can allow businesses to grow while their owners continue living nearby.
I see this as an opportunity for property developers. Instead of thinking only in terms of residential units, retail areas and large corporate offices, why not create smaller and more flexible workplaces within residential developments? These can serve entrepreneurs, consultants, start-ups and professionals who want to work near home, but not necessarily from home.
The benefits can extend beyond convenience. Every person who can walk to work means one less daily trip competing for road space.
It can mean less fuel consumed, less pressure on public transportation and fewer hours lost in traffic. Those hours can instead go to family, work, rest or even simply having breakfast without rushing out the door.
Reducing the distance
Of course, this arrangement cannot apply to everyone. Many professions will always require people to travel to hospitals, schools, factories, construction sites and other workplaces.
But for businesses and professions that can operate from flexible offices, a long daily commute should not always be the default.
We often discuss better cities in terms of transportation—more roads, better trains and faster ways of getting from one place to another. These are important. But perhaps, good development should also reduce the distance we need to travel in the first place.
Sometimes, improving mobility does not mean helping people travel farther or faster. It can also simply mean allowing more people to work closer to home.
And for me, that happens to be about 50 steps.
The author is a LEED Fellow, ASEAN Architect, UAP Fellow, and educator with over 25 years of professional practice in architecture and sustainability
