Shed holiday in Cornwall

The Edge is built on the edge of a cliff at Whitsand Bay, Cornwall. Designed by local architect Robert Woffende, the  beach hut-esque cabin has one bedroom across its 30 m² floor space as well as living room and kitchen, all with underfloor heating and bi-fold doors. You can rent it through Unique Home Stays (more photos at the link).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Dance and music studio

A major shedworking structure from The Stable Company for Orchards School, West Sussex, this took eight weeks to complete. The school is particularly strong on sport and music/drama and needed a standalone bespoke building in their grounds as a dedicated space for the children. The brief was "an inspirational, flexible space that would allow pupils to celebrate their performative strengths, doubling-up as a great practice space throughout the day to improve upon their existing skills". Most importantly, it needed to be large and light with plenty of storage as well as toilets. The exterior entrance was also surrounded with purple slate and garden boxes.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Dylan Thomas' writing shed features in new Goldie Lookin Chain video

Humorous Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin Chain have turned to a garden office maestro for their latest release. The chaps from Newport sing out about the joys of Wales in their new work, Fear of a Welsh Planet, and take in the delights of the country including Blaenau Ffestiniog, Joe Calzaghe and Dylan Thomas' writing shed in Laugharne which appears around the two minute mark... The full video is below and there is occasional strong languag.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Garden office installed in four hours

Family-run, Gosport-based CS Garden Offices are proud of their speed in putting together timberless garden offices, most recently a 2.6m x 2.4m one done from start to finish in under four hours (more photos here). Here's what they say about their construction techniques:

Coldstream use 75mm thick foam injected polyurethane insulated panels for our garden offices manufactured in high pressure presses, exclusively within our own factory here in the UK. The polyurethane core in addition to providing very high insulation does not absorb water, is rot proof and vermin proof! The very high insulation value of Coldstream buildings brings major cost savings on heating in the winter and gives a comfortable environment on hot summer days. The Coldstream cam locking panels can be easily dismantled and re-erected in another location if required.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

A Book of Book Lists

Slightly off topic this morning, but if you liked my previous books - Shedworking (of course!), Bookshelf (inspired by my Bookshelf blog) and Improbable Libraries - then I am quietly confident you will like my latest one too, A Book of Book Lists which has just been published by The British Library (keenly priced at just £7.99). Here is the official bumph:

This is a book of book lists. Not of the ‘1,001 Books You MUST Read Before You Die’ variety but lists that tell stories. Lists that make you smile, make you wonder, and see titles together in entirely new ways. From Bin Laden’s bookshelf to the books most frequently left in hotels, from prisoners’ favourite books to MPs’ most borrowed books, these lists are proof that a person’s bookcase tells you everything you need to know about them, and sometimes more besides.Perfect for bibliophiles looking to expand their bookshelves or to learn what their bookcase says about them.

It's already had positive mentions in the Times Literary Supplement and The Idler magazine ("amusing and enlightening") and is available from all the usual places, but ideally from your local independent bookshop or The British Library. Dare I say, it's the ideal Christmas present? --------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Alex Kiszczuk: shedworker

London-based Architect Alex Kiszczuk was a first time entrant to this year's Shed of the Year competition (you can see more photos of his garden office at readersheds.co.uk). Using SIPS clad in recycled pallet wood, the shedworking environment was also featured in Country Life where he said: "Getting to create my own shed was a major incentive for setting up my own architect’s practice two years ago. It’s great to be able to work so close to my wife and children, but also to be detached from the family home. It’s my place of work, so I didn’t want it to be too comfortable." (although it does have underfloor heating, sofa bed and a dartboard). The verandah is made of old railway sleepers.

---------------------------------------------------------

Saturday posts are sponsored by Eurodita, the leader in serving smart dealers

Commuting bad for health and job satisfaction

An additional 20 minutes of commuting every working day is equivalent to a 19% annual pay cut when it comes to measuring how satisfied people say they are with their jobs, says a new study which also indicates that working from home makes it more likely that an employee will remain in their job.

Researchers from the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) examined the effects of commuting to work on the wellbeing of more than 26,000 employees in England over a five year period. Their work shows that every extra minute of commuting time reduces job satisfaction and leisure time satisfaction, increases strain and worsens mental health.

Principal Investigator, Dr Kiron Chatterjee, an Associate Professor in Travel Behaviour at UWE Bristol, said: “While longer commute times were found to reduce job satisfaction, it is also clear that people take on longer commutes partly to increase their earnings, which in turn improves job satisfaction. This raises interesting questions over whether the additional income associated with longer commutes fully compensates for the negative aspects of the journey to work.”

Other findings from the 18-month study include:

• People who walk or cycle to work do not report reductions in leisure time satisfaction in the same way as other commuters, even with the same length of commute
• Bus commuters feel the negative effects of longer commute times more strongly than people who use other ways of getting to work
• Longer commutes by rail are associated with less strain than shorter commutes by rail
• Longer commutes reduce women's job satisfaction more than that of men's

Dr Chatterjee said: “The findings indicate that longer journeys to work have adverse subjective wellbeing effects, particularly through loss of free time. On the other hand, longer commute times were not found to have a large impact on life satisfaction overall. This is because people take on longer commutes for good reasons relating to improving their employment, housing and family situations and these factors serve to increase life satisfaction. This does not mean that the negative subjective wellbeing impacts of longer commutes can be disregarded. The acceptance that a long commute is a price to pay may only persist if it is considered unavoidable and a social norm.”

The average commuting time per day in England has risen from 48 minutes to 60 minutes over the past 20 years, with one in seven commuters now spending at least two hours a day travelling to and from work.

The findings also showed working from home, walking to work and shorter commute times increase job satisfaction and that shorter commute times make it more likely that an employee will remain in their job.

Dr Chatterjee added: "An important message for employers is that job satisfaction can be improved if workers have opportunities to reduce the time spent commuting, to work from home, and/or to walk or cycle to work – such commuting opportunities are likely to be good news for employee wellbeing and retention and hence reduced costs to businesses." --------------------------------------------------------

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