Spatial zoning for remote work in multifamily dwellings: an exploratory mixed-methods study of environmental satisfaction among co-occupants

Persistent home-based work has intensified spatial competition in multifamily dwellings, yet housing research largely centres on remote workers. This exploratory convergent mixed-methods study examined how workspace configuration relates to non-working co-occupants’ environmental satisfaction in Toronto and Montreal. Habraken’s zone-and-margin framework and household-level person–environment fit guided a bounded configurational analysis of three apartment plans, a 14-item Environmental Satisfaction Scale survey (n = 98), and semi-structured interviews (n = 21). In this sample, entrance-adjacent configurations were associated with higher reported satisfaction and greater route bypass ability than workspaces embedded near private circulation. Interviews indicated that route autonomy and controllable visual and acoustic boundaries reduced routine disruption and coordination demands, although daylight, corridor exposure, enclosure, unit capacity, and care needs qualified these benefits. Future research should link complete households to their actual plans, combine validated scales with direct indoor-environmental measurements, and use preregistered longitudinal analyses across unit sizes, household types and regulatory contexts.