Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution

by Alex Johnson

Featuring shedworkers and shedbuilders from around the world who are leading the alternative workplace revolution, Shedworking looks at why having a shed office is a greener way of working, improves the work-life balance, and accelerates one's productivity. Inspired by the author‘s Shedworking website, which has been internationally acclaimed for the groundbreaking scale of its architectural coverage, the book features many previously unpublished images of garden offices and shed-like atmospheres: offices on roofs, sheds inside "traditional" offices, and even sheds on wheels, as well as cutting-edge Le Corbusier-designed models for the back garden, all-glass shed offices, and buildings "built" using living trees. Along the way it offers a whistle-stop tour of famous sheds from Pliny the Younger‘s summerhouse and the retreats of 19th-century composers Edvard Grieg and Gustav Mahler to award-winning 21st-century fantasy writer Neil Gaiman's gazebo. In short, Shedworking offers a manifesto for those wanting to change their working lives for the better and go to work in the garden.

Genres: Architecture

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Latest book: Shed Manual (Haynes, 2019)
Next book: Edward Lear & The Pussycat: Famous Writers and Their Pets (August, 2019)
Next book after that: Menus That Made History (Kyle/Octopus, September, 2019)

I am a professional blogger and journalist, part of The Independent newspaper's online team in the UK. I run Shedworking (www.shedworking.co.uk) which inspired the book 'Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution' published by Frances Lincoln, The Micro Life (www.themicrolife.co.uk), and curate Bookshelf (www.onthebookshelf.co.uk), which was published as a book in 2012 by Thames & Hudson as 'Bookshelf'.

'Improbable Libraries', a survey of the most unusual and intriguing libraries around the world, was published by Thames & Hudson in April 2015 and 'A Book of Book Lists' in October 2017 by The British Library. My book on book towns around the world, 'Book Towns', was published by Frances Lincoln in March 2018 and 'Shelf Life, a selection of essays about books and reading, in October 2018 by The British Library. The same month, I brought out a literary trumps card game called The Writers Game with Laurence King Publishing.

Reviews

[Bradley White · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is interesting that a book published in 2010 is expounding the virtues of working from home, in this case from sheds/small buildings in the backyard. And there is nothing new about people doing so since before the industrial revolution. The modern office had its roots there, dehumanizing people by moving from an office, to a cubicle, to open plan desks, and in the mix, having no desk at all with hot desking. It wasn't until the COVID pandemic where people (who still had jobs) had to work from home and realized in these modern times of electronic communications they could work productively from anywhere.

Not for every one (and limited to office workers), working away from the traditional company office has many benefits which this book demonstrates.

Although ignorant, narrow-minded, controlling, and distrustful managers are dragging people back to the office to micromanage them, but once you have the taste of freedom...

Worth reading, excellent text (emphases on UK building codes) and inspiring photos.