I’m dreaming of a room with no Zoom

WHEN my generation of houseowners moved into our homes, we knocked down the walls wherever we could. Open-plan was the buzzword, encapsulating an escape from the pokey, front-room-for-best lifestyle of suburbia and replacing it with freewheeling, multi-generation al, sociable spaces. Dining rooms? Who needed them? Sitting rooms? Why bother when it’s so much nicer to have everyone within eye contact in the huge kitchen. And so it has continued until now when, with the whole family stuck at home, working and schooling, there is no greater luxury than being able to have a bit of privacy. Somewhere you can’t hear someone else’s Zoom meeting booming out. A place the children can muck around in and mess up as much as they want and that you don’t have to stare at 24/7. That thing with four walls and a door which you can shut firmly.

Suddenly everyone’s craving a space, no matter how small, that they can call their own. Open-plan, your time might be up.