What Live/Work Spaces Have Looked Like Through the Ages

Welcome to Origin Story, a series that chronicles the lesser-known histories of designs that have shaped how we live.

We’re all familiar with contemporary "live/work" spaces, particularly since the pandemic incited a lasting shift from offices toward remote jobs. But people have been merging home and labor for centuries. Here, we scan a few noteworthy dual-purpose housing typologies from the past—some of which are still in use.

Medieval Burgage Plots

Early urban entrepreneurs in Europe quite literally lived above the shop. In medieval market towns like Chester, England, (pictured in top photo) or Bruges, Belgium, a "burgage plot" was a long, narrow strip of land fronting the main street, granted to "burgesses" (town citizens) for rent. The street-facing ground floor housed a workshop or store making and selling anything from shoes to tools, with the family quarters situated on a level above or at the back of the structure. Once a single street reached a critical mass of burgage plots and buildings, it functioned as a shopping district. Though few examples of the burgage plot remain, its DNA survives in European city plans, where slender lots still trace the rhythm of commerce and domesticity side by side.

Japanese Machiyas

In Japan’s Edo period (1603–1867), the machiya ("town house") concealed a surprisingly deep interior that allowed the rising merchant class to live and work in the same space, particularly in the then-imperial capital of Kyoto. With a shop in front, living spaces in back, and a storage loft above, the wooden structures were built with a tori-niwa pathway connecting the entrance to an internal courtyard, and sliding screens and tatami floors that allowed rooms flexible configurations. Many machiya featured ornate lattice facades, called koshi, that indicated the shop’s purpose—a precursor to Japan’s early 20th-century "signboard architecture." The housing type declined due to the country’s post-WWII modernization efforts, but in recent years many remaining machiya have been restored as cafes, galleries, or vacation rentals.

Dutch Canal Houses

During the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age, houses were taxed based on street frontage. As a money-saving work-around, the canal house was born: narrow enough to keep the facade low, but deep (and tall) enough to house (mainly) middle-class merchant families and their businesses. The attic or basement level stored goods, with the living spaces in between. Also on the attic level, a hook projecting from the gables was used to move furniture and other items up from the street and through upper-level windows. In some canal houses, the nicest rooms were for entertaining, and many had "back houses," or small secondary living structures, and little gardens. By the 19th century, industrialization and urban population shifts contributed to the separation of work and home spaces, and many canal houses were converted into apartments or single-family homes.