Mobile Office Support Hub​

An  interesting concept here from Jack Carter Architects, what they call a "mobile office support hub", a kind of halfway house between a garden office and a traditional office which aims to help the health and wellbeing of people working from home. Here's what they say about it:​​

During the pandemic, the focus has been on technology, making remote working secure but if this is to become a long-term option, we feel more needs to be done on supporting staff outside the office. The Office Support Hub is based on new proprietary electric vehicle technology which is being rolled out across the logistics sector. JCA propose designing bespoke mobile office support vehicles, for medium to large organisations across the country.

The whole thing is an electric vehicle, with a metal chassis (what JCA call "a skateboard-style bed") and a timber frame. There's a modular feel to the interior which can easily be reconfigured where necessary. It features all the normal must-haves and features of a garden office with space for two people to work plus ergonomic working arrangements, as well as a break out space, audio-visual room, workshop space. The idea is that each van has a 500km range and can drive out a local area providing services for local employees who can book its services via a mobile app. At the end of the day, it returns to the main head office to recharge.

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

Scottish Men's Sheds offer crisis grants

As part of the Scottish Government's package of funding to combat isolation and loneliness, the Scottish Men’s Sheds Association (SMSA) has been awarded 30,000 to support Men’s Sheds in Scotland. The money will assist sheds that are suffering financial problems with running costs such as rent and heating, and which face shutting because of the pandemic. 

“SMSA is delighted to have secured this crisis grant funding for Scottish Men’s Sheds through the Scottish Government," said Jason Schroeder, SMSA’s Executive Officer. "Covid-19 forced our Sheds to close temporarily, calling a halt to much of their fundraising activities and this is impacting heavily on their income generation.  This fund will support new and existing Sheds, large and small, to cover core running costs to offset this lost income.  We will aim to help those Sheds in crisis to give them the peace of mind to ensure they are still here in the future when Sheds will be needed most.

“A huge area of concern is how this pandemic has impacted on people’s health and wellbeing and we need to ensure the survival of our Sheds for when men can attend them again, hopefully in the spring time. This funding has the potential to do so much good.  We will strive to stretch it as far and wide as we can to prevent any closures.”

The SMSA will start to release funds to successful applicants later this month.

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

Lovely garden office green roof

A little something to brighten up the start of your new lockdown. Here's what the owner, consultant planner and architectural designer Ian Gunter-Jones says about it: "My first green roof on top of the studio in our previous cottage garden. Chantry row, Aldbury. We planted the roof with sedum plugs, but I made the substrate a little too rich and so the wildflowers soon took over, a happy accident."
 

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  Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of    

contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Lockdown garden office build in new Idler magazine

The new issue of the Idler magazine is out. My regular column on sheds is particularly interesting this time round as it includes a detailed interview with architect and designer Damon Webb of Feral Studio who is based in Powys. We talked about how and why he built the rather lovely garden office above during lockdown, and there are some lovely images of it too, inside and out. For snooker fans, there is also my regular column, this time about snooker between lockdowns.

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Merry Christmas to all our readers

“Yo ho, my boys,” said Fezziwig. “No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer. Let’s have the shutters up,” cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, “before a man can say Jack Robinson.”

Shutters open again on January 4.

Barrington Pheloung: shedworker

 

The theme music to the Inspector Morse television series was written by Australian composer Barrington Pheloung (1954 – 2019) who lived and worked in the UK for many years. Pheloung not only wrote the theme tune but all the incidental music too, as he did for the prequel to Morse, Endeavour, and the sequel Lewis. 

And he was also a shedworker. He's pictured above in his garden office and below at work as he talks to Andy Brown, music director of the London Metropolitan Orchestra, in his music studio about how he put together the Morse music.

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Monday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

Living in a log cabin

As well as working in a shedlike environment, you can also live in one. Graham Ely lives in a Norwegian Log cabin holiday home near his family and friends in Dorset. Three years ago he decided to downsize and saw a lodge holiday home at Merley House Holiday Park near Wimborne.  “This is what I wanted, something solid that would really last”, he says. “I got in touch with Norwegian Log and waited three to four months for ordering and then it took six weeks to erect. The process was as smooth as silk.”

Norwegian Log homes comply with the Caravan Act so can be sited in leisure developments like Merley House Holiday Park, as well as in residential areas for family annexes. 

"The place is just fantastic, it’s really warm and it has everything you want. I’m just really surprised the government doesn’t buy loads to house families, or more younger people don’t buy them, as they are just brilliant!” His traditional-style log home features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, galley kitchen, utility space, hallway and a large outdoor decking area. The building has double thickness walls and insulation,  

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