Friday Finery: Meteor Vineyards Studio

A garden office in Napa Valley, California, by Cutler Anderson Architects, very pleasantly sited in an oak grove and linked via a trellised walk to the house. 

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Shedworking has redrawn the rush hour, says new RAC report

A new five-year study from the RAC Foundation has revealed that shedworking and homeworking in general is reshaping people's commute.

In 'Working from Home and Post-Pandemic Travel Behaviour',  Dr Llinos Brown and Professor Jillian Anable of the University of Leeds show that those working from home most frequently use public transport more on the days they travel. 

Moreover, the new ways of working have created a new pattern of longer, less frequent and more rail-oriented commutes, concentrated in the middle of the week and increasingly undertaken as part of split working days. Among people who worked from home at least one day a week in 2025, Tuesday and Wednesday were the most common workplace days, while Friday was by far the least common. The result is a transport week with demand concentrated from Tuesday to Thursday and flatter peaks on Mondays and Fridays.

At the same time, a third of hybrid workers said they sometimes worked part of the same day at home and part in the workplace. According to the report's authors, these patterns can reduce conventional peak-hour travel, but do not necessarily eliminate the journey. Instead, they make demand more fluid and harder for operators to predict across the day.

The central finding is that the ‘hybrid’ pattern of working some days from home and some in the workplace is reorganising the commute but having much less influence on non-work travel, shopping, exercise, social activity or household car ownership.

“While WFH is associated with lower levels of car commuting, it does not appear to be linked to lower levels of car ownership," says the report. "This is somewhat unexpected, as reduced commuting might be expected to reduce the need to own a car. Instead, households appear to retain vehicles even when commuting becomes less frequent, highlighting the role of non-work travel needs in car ownership and use.”

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Working from home looks like an employment pattern that is here to stay for many jobs, but that of itself isn’t going to address our transport challenges.”

Professor Jillian Anable, co-author of the report, said: “The important story is not how many people now work at home, it is that hybrid working has changed the shape of demand on the transport system. We now have a more pronounced midweek peak, more split-days, and less predictable journey patterns, and a group of workers travelling less often but over longer distances and with greater reliance on rail.

“That means homeworking should not be treated as a simple substitute for transport policy – it may reduce some driving, but it does not by itself reduce car ownership or most non-work travel. Operators and policymakers need to plan for a different pattern of demand, not assume that demand has disappeared.”

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

 

Beach hut sales surge following heatwave

Estate agency Boydens has reported selling 16 beach huts in Essex so far this year, with demand accelerating during the summer heatwave period.

The sales have been concentrated in Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as High Wall, Low Wall, The Leas, and Southcliff.

Zenna Everett, sales and lettings negotiator at Boydens’ Frinton-on-Sea office, said some properties received accepted offers within hours of coming to market. “The level of interest in acquiring beach huts has gone through the roof this summer,” she said. “People like the convenience of a beach hut as it gives them a base, somewhere to relax and to store their things."

Asking prices across the region range from aroud £10,000 to £60,000, depending on location. Buyers are also liable for annual licence fees payable to the relevant local authority. The agency reported that most purchases have been made by families from inland Essex towns including Brentwood, Chelmsford, and Romford, seeking coastal access for children and grandchildren.

Five transactions completed in August, with additional sales progressing in September.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

 

Friday Finery: Studio / Bunkhouse

This week's splendid finery is suggested by Shedworking reader Benjamin Schneider and is the studio-bunkhouse designed by Cutler Anderson Architects on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and which is the recipient of an AIA National Small Projects Award. Lots more atmospheric photos at the link above.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information 

Coffice

After 20 years of writing about garden offices I thought I'd heard every portmanteau description (I still like 'shoffice') but in the i newspaper this week there's a new example, the coffice, so-called because the owner describes it as very narrow and a bit like a coffin (pictured above). It's actually very nice inside. Read more at 'We built a £13,500 garden office. It saves £500 in monthly mortgage costs' where you can see some interior shots.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master, bespoke garden rooms and offices designed, manufactured and installed throughout the UK 

 

 

Amol Rajan: shedworker

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Having left the BBC, my former editor from my time at The Independent newspaper Amol Rajan is building up a new online company called the Amol Rajan Connection. And he's doing it from an orange shed in his back garden as these shots from his instagram account reveal.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amol Rajan (@amolrajanconnection)

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

 

Friday Finery: two cabin festivals

Two festival fineries this week for you, the first Le Festival des Cabanes which is an annual openair architecture festival held in the Sources du Lac d'Annecy region of Haute-Savoie, France including the municipalities of Chevaline, Val de Chaise, Doussard, Giez, Lathuile, Saint-Ferréol and Faverges-Seythenex. Showcasing a range of international architects and their wooden cabins (some of which are pictured above), it's open until November 6.

Finishing on September 28 is the fifth iteration of the Villa Medici's Festival des Cabanes at its home in  Rome. These comprise six original creations like the one pictured below.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information