live/work spaces

It takes a certain amount of bravery to embrace the simplicity of a minimalist living space. But that's exactly what you need to create the sort of environment that induces clarity of mind and serenity of spirit.

Soaring ceilings, open-plan spaces and intelligent interior design: lofts are the aspiration of many design-focused individuals.

Developers, currently transforming factories and film studios, warehouses and wharf buildings into light, bright, open plan apartments, are struggling to keep pace with the burgeoning demand for loft spaces. Spaces are getting more difficult to find and the trend is moving further afield to areas such as Brighton, Manchester and beyond.

City living, boosted by government policy and dwindling land supplies, is definitely here to stay and nothing epitomises the contemporary urban experience quite like a well-designed loft carved from the interior of an imposing industrial edifice.

Live/Work

Our friends at the live/work network have defined a live/work space to be a mixed use of a property for both business and residential purposes.

Essential ingredients are:

• Designed for true work use
  
• Work use monitored
  
• Enterprise supported
  
• Business clustering enabled
  
• Quality broadband
  
• Achieves transport reduction
  
• Offers more than residential home working
  
• Helps cuts costs by combining work and live

Desirable ingredients are:

• Shared resources and facilities - a heart/hub
  
• Proximity to move-on work space for expansion
  
• Sufficient scale of development to achieve business impact
  
• Appropriate location, close to key work centres
  
• Links to business/education sectors
  
• Brownfield site
  
• Sustainable impact on domestic life

Other useful articles on Live/Work space include;

Integrated working and living. A review on the report "Homes That Work: The Role of Housing Associations and Providers of Live/Work"

The right balance. An article by Natasha Rees, published in the Estates Gazette, 9 October 2004