With work from home and online office presentations becoming the new normal in the present Covid-19 scenario, the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), in collaboration with architectural consultancy firm Abin Design Studio that had earlier set up Nazrul Tirtha, is planning to set up neighbourhood work cocoons in residential areas across New Town.
The cocoons — just a few steps from one’s house — will have small workstations where residents can work in a convenient working environment for a few hours.
Hidco officials said such neighbourhood workplaces are going to be new norm given the fact that more and more companies are encouraging employees to work from home.
“We are hearing from many people that with continuous hours of working from home, a mental partition is happening between home and work. The idea is to have an air conditioned workplace at the locality and near residential areas that will have a small café corner, work tables, a library and comfortable seating arrangements with WiFi facility. One can access them by walking a few steps from his/her house,” said Hidco and NKDA chairman Debashis Sen, adding that the same concept can be followed in other areas of the city as well.
Sen added that each of these work cocoons can be set up on about one cottah of land and it can cost only a few lakhs.
Architect Abin Chaudhuri, founder of Abin Design Studio, said that his team of architects were working in collaboration with Hidco to build this community work module. “It will be a kind of place where one can rejuvenate his or her mental set up to work in a convenient environment,” Chaudhuri said.
As per plans, each cocoon can accommodate about 10 to 12 people, officials said.
“This will indeed be very useful. Often it is much challenging to maintain focus working from home with several distractions. Having a working environment close to home will be of great help,” said Kaustav Dey, a senior IT executive and resident of New Town who has been working from home since the lockdown was enforced.
Hidco is also working on the concept of converting New Town into a “15-minute town” where home-to-work travel and vis-a-vis could be done within 15 minutes by either walking or cycling for those whose residence and office are both located in New Town.
Source: Times of India
