Confinement stories: Working from home

Covid-19 has changed daily habits of people all around the world, more or less drastically. One of these habits is working and subsequently the workspace which means home for many. We continue sharing confinement stories from Brussels and this time we focus on the working from home experience. The story comes from Paul Steinbrück, an architect living in Brussels since 2008. He is a driving force behind POOL IS COOL initiative which strives for the re-introduction of open air swimming in Brussels.

This is my workspace at the moment. 50 % of my daytime I spent in the storage room of our apartment. Living in an open flat with almost no doors, we had to find a solution to concentrate on work while the other one cares for our son. The only option is this narrow storage space in the middle of our apartment. With a width of merely 60 centimeters between wall and shelf, it is surprisingly practical and comfortable! What we considered a nightmare in the beginning became a surprising lesson in space efficiency. Even the fact that there is no window (don’t worry, it’s well ventilated) makes the focus on work much easier (even though there are still the digital distractions).

This workspace came with a funny new ritual: When one of us wants to work, we stage the leaving for our son, waving goodbye when the “worker” literally leaves the flat (and then sneaks in again once out of sight). And we slam the front door when we “come back home” which excites him greatly. 

Unfortunately the storage space is not entirely sound proof and he sometimes hears familiar voices coming from the walls when we have video meetings (some of you might have seen me in here already) … we’re afraid he’ll be suspicious soon.