
What the Future of Working at Home May Look Like - wyclif
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-future-of-working-at-home-may-look-like-1448248050
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ChuckMcM
The zoning laws are real but in places like Denver there are a _lot_ of mixed
residential/commercial spaces. I tried to get a loan to redevelop an older
motel once into a combined living/working space, where adjoined rooms would be
Office on one side and living accommodation on the other. Sunnyvale was a bit
dubious but willing to give it a try, but at the time I couldn't swing the
whole loan weight (challenges of being a "new" development company as opposed
to an established one, I could of course partner with one but they all wanted
33% off the top which made it a really expensive proposition.)

As someone who occasionally does work from home the biggest challenge was
getting the rest of the family to treat you as being "at the office" even
though you were in the office over the garage.

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tomphoolery
Wait was it really called "Sunnyvale" or did you just make the most veiled
Trailer Park Boys reference ever?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnyvale_Trailer_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnyvale_Trailer_Park)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3757674/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3757674/)

~~~
Domenic_S
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnyvale,_California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnyvale,_California)

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datashovel
IMO in most cases architectural "secret sauce" is not going to do anything for
a person working from home. That said, I really do love the idea of the
underground studios for musicians.

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biomcgary
Unfortunately, expansion of the working home concept will be slowed
substantially by the slow change of zoning laws, which are decided at a very
low level and rather hard to overturn. This economic space needs an Uber or
Airbnb to push those changes through. I don't know what their economic
incentive would be, though.

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codingdave
I'm not sure which jurisdictions you are thinking of. Most places I have lived
allowed small business from the home. It was more of an insurance and
licensing issue than zoning, which are also solvable problems. Even if you do
need a zoning change, it doesn't need to be a change to your entire city...
just to your property. So talk to your city planner/council, submit a plan,
and move forward.

Now, if you are talking about building entire factories next to your home, and
changing a residential neighborhood to allow industrial, yes, that would be
hard. And unwise on multiple levels. In those cases, again, talk to your city
- you may be able to reverse the plan to get a residence allowed in an
industrial area.

Really, most cities want to encourage business within them... you just need to
be willing to make some calls, listen to feedback on your plans to be sure it
doesn't negatively impact the neighbors, and do some paperwork.

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cmsmith
GP may have been referring to TFA, which was getting into medium scale hybrid
residential-commercial developments.

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te_chris
One of New Zealand's most prominent architects did something similar with
their house in the 70's I think. They built a sprawling complex on the hills
above Wellington harbour where they lived and housed their practice offices.
It's a pretty phenomenal building.

[http://thepapercity.tumblr.com/post/42588584865/athfield-
hou...](http://thepapercity.tumblr.com/post/42588584865/athfield-house-
athfield-architects-wellington) [http://citygallery.org.nz/news/house-ath-
built](http://citygallery.org.nz/news/house-ath-built)

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positron4
An excellent example of emerging Neo-Feudalism! Workers (Programmers, IT,
Accountants - any white collar worker) will be housed in the same location as
the Owner of the business. It is strikingly similar to Medieval times where
Apprentices used to work for employers - usually the Owner. Zoning laws will
be changed to suit the businesses. It won't be an issue as long as the
businesses are making enough profit to keep people employed and can generate
taxes.

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zachsnow
Random capitalization is like scare quotes -- it distracts from the message
and focuses the reader on whatever underlying motive or mindset the writer
might have.

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positron4
I did not randomly capitalize. The capitalization has been made for a reason.

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tbrownaw
Pedantry is an excellent way to deliberately miss the point.

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positron4
Language is a tool to be used effectively. The implications of a particular
choice of words (or the capitalizations thereof) might make people
uncomfortable. But conciseness is a virtue of its own.

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gnaritas
> Language is a tool to be used effectively.

Which you are failing to do, thus the meta-discussion about your weird
capitalization. Were your choices effective, no one would be mentioning it.

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kin
Working at a startup in Venice (near Google LA) already looks like this. There
are tons of work/live lofts around the area that house small teams.

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pdenya
Same thing in SF, startups renting the bottom of duplexes.

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ilaksh
Reminds me of my idea:
[https://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/](https://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/)

