Dual-Use Dwellings – Historical Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced many employees to work from home, and since then, remote work has remained a prominent topic. From an architectural point of view living and working in the same space is a complex issue that challenges the boundaries between private and shared spaces, productive and reproductive work, the home and the city. To address how workspaces can be integrated into residential buildings today, examining the historical background of dualused dwellings is essential. This paper analyzes historical forms of work from home settlements and purposely built dual-use dwellings, with a focus on identifying their basic characteristics, the degree of overlap between living and working spaces, and their relationship with the immediate surroundings. The results show three historical types of dual-use dwellings: integrated into the neighborhood, within the building community, and in the housing unit. With the digital revolution, the high demand for remote work jobs, and a growing interest in work-life balance, it is evident that there is a growing need for further research on the integration of dual-used dwellings within multiresidential developments.