The Dwelling Complex II. The Live-Work Unit; C. Location and Mix

The design of every housing unit must consider both its living and its working functions. All dwellings are intrinsically the stage for domestic work, including such routine tasks as cooking, laundering, and maintenance. Standards for easing these indispensable labors are fairly well developed (if sometimes ignored) among professionals, and they are highly valued by the buying public. Extrinsic occupations within and close to the household, usually those performed to earn income, have been the subject of the last few Technical Pages. Today’s circumstances require that all dwellings should be considered for their live-work potential. Both in existing neighborhoods and in new ones designed on New Urbanist principles, the dwellings should provide a range of intensity and variation of locations for extra-domestic work. This is an integral component of the necessary diversity (both economic and experiential) of the authentic neighborhood. Weighing the overall live-work balance of an area, and the subtle pattern of its aggregation, is a key step in securing livability, economic strength, and maintaining real estate values in the city to come. measuring the market Live-work building types are not well understood today, and the impetus to build them will not emerge from conventional “rear-view” marketing studies. Confirmation of market existence comes from knowing the actual range of needs and desires, information provided by methods such as those used in Nelessen’s “Visual Preference Studies” and Zimmerman/Volk’s “Target Market Analysis.” The appetite for live-work designs has proven to be commonly present, although their acceptance has always required extra care in location and design. The strategy in existing situations is to insert new live-work units to ease the transition between single-family homes and busy commercial strips or highways. Live-work units (which usually house “destination” businesses), can thrive in the in-between situations that are not visible enough for “drive-by” customers. Thus in locales where conventional single-use zoning still governs, the lines separating different uses on the zoning map identify areas ready for live-work units. Unnaturally sharp lines on the zoning map thereby become an organic transition reflecting current realities. Both sides of the line benefit from this new tissue that both isolates and connects. Within a newly planned area as small as a block, a calculated mix of different kinds of live-work units should be included. For example, a block might be composed principally of smaller units of starter (more affordable) housing, equipping each to become a business incubator. Larger units, occurring at corners (where there is more parking available) could be designed for move-up or empty-nester households with capital and experience enough to amortize a larger work space. In these, some of the neighbors might find employment. Beyond their use in groups as transitional fabric, the occasional anomalous live-work units create points of memorable intensity within otherwise relentlessly residential areas. In swaths where it is impossible to break the “cookie-cutter” quality by variation of house style alone, the solo live-work unit can be a welcome relief. Beyond this, there is the element of time, allowing for the gradual evolution by which live-work lofts come into being. Not only 19th-century factories, but out-of-date office parks, parking garages, and even shopping centers can become working lofts. To demolish such buildings the way that is commonly done today is profoundly antiecological. “The best way to recycle a brick is to leave it in place.” This will be the subject of the next technical page.