London studio Boano Prišmontas has created a prefabricated timber home office that can be built within a day, in response to the increased number of people working from home due to coronavirus.
Named My Room in the Garden, the modular pod was designed to provide external dedicated office space for people now working from home on a regular basis.
A version of the office has been built in south London as part of the Peckham Design Trail during this year's London Design Festival.
"Since the time both me and Tomaso were working in large architectural firms, we felt the need for a private studio space where we could work on our creative projects in peace, away from the living space of our homes but still within comfortable proximity," explained Boano Prišmontas co-founder Jonas Prišmontas.
"Given the current situation of a global pandemic, we feel that many people are experiencing a similar type of frustration and would like to have the option of escaping their home space and being able to work or focus on their hobbies/exercise, thus our solution," he told Dezeen.
The My Room in the Garden offices are made from modular prefabricated timber elements so that they can be built in a variety of sizes to fit within people's gardens, alleyways alongside homes, or even on rooftops.
The smallest office has an area of 1.8 metres by 2.4 metres and stands 2.5 metres tall, which is the highest a structure can be in the UK without requiring planning permission. As the design is modular, pods can be added to create much larger spaces.
Although official lockdown has ended in the UK, numerous people are still working from home and are expected to continue to do so in the future.
Digitally fabricated from certified sustainably sourced timber, the pods are envisioned as an alternative to working within people's existing homes or purchasing a shed as a home office.
"My Room in the Garden is not an insulated container with windows," said Boano Prišmontas co-founder Tomaso Boano. "It is also not a garden shed you buy in a hardware store," he told Dezeen.
"What we created is a modular and customisable system of elements that – based on the size of available space – create a pleasant and comfortable enclosure within the household."
Inside, the office is almost entirely timber with the plywood structure left exposed. It features slatted corner sections and peg boards that desks, shelves and storage can be hung from.
"My Room in the Garden was created with comfort and customisability in mind," said Boano.
"We wanted to allow people to be able to decide what their interior would look like or how much storage they would have, and we do that by creating a system of interchangeable elements."
As Boano Prišmontas expect the offices to be assembled in tight, hard to access spaces they designed My Room in the Garden from a set of modular parts that are small enough to carry through a home to the back garden.
The designers also claim that assembly of the prefabricated elements, which only requires an Allen key and can be done in a day, is easier than putting together IKEA furniture.
"The design is based on the sizes of corridors and winded narrow staircases of Victorian houses," explained Prišmontas.
"We made a decision to limit the size of the pieces that need to be brought onto the site, so they can be delivered to the smallest of gardens that don't even have street access," he continued.
"The assembly of the modules can be done with just an Allen key or a power drill. We like to say that our designs are easier to assemble than IKEA furniture because the construction is very intuitive and clear. Manuals are available but not necessary."
A My Room in the Garden pod is on display from 16-20 September at Burgess Business Park as part of London Design Festival.
Previously Boano and Prišmontas collaborated to create a pop-up art studio that was built to highlight unaffordable rents in London.
Project credits:
Design: Boano Prišmontas
Metalwork: Canofgas
Birch plywood: DHH Timber
Special thanks: Alicia Arguelles Garcia, Liz Parr, Jonathan Cardy, Dylan Drake and Raphaelle Macaron