Since the time man began to farm land and employ laborers, "work" has often been seen as an activity somehow separated from "life." With the onset of the industrial revolution and concomitant advances in transportation technology, commuting to work over some distance became the rule rather than the exception. As early as the middle of the last century the effects of technology and intense urbanization gave rise to movements for social improvement, one form of which was the notion that the poor should be protected from the tendency of industry to want workers living nearby (presumably at greater risk to their health and welfare) through laws requiring that separate sectors of the city be set aside for industrial and residential uses. Thus arose Zoning, the primary mode of land use regulation which continues to the present day as the mainstay of modernist city planning: today mixed-use development is the exception rather than the rule and primarily a remnant of earlier times. Meanwhile building officials have closed ranks to enforce this separation between life and work through codes that separate uses into "occupancies" which when mixed within a building require fire wall separation and sometimes entirely different construction types under the code.

The late 20th Century shift to a post-industrial economy led to the de-industrialization of American inner cities, and other factors including the rise of cargo containerization (you can't fit a container in a loft) caused a major recycling of commercial buildings sparking the rise of live/work as a mass phenomenon beginning in the 1960's and continuing to the present. Several factors conspire to make work/live even more attractive today, to the point that new buildings are even being designed and built with this use in mind: commuting is hell--on our time, our pocketbooks and the environment; the internet, fax machines, and even teleconferencing make travel to face-to face meetings less often necessary; changing household structures have reduced the standard nuclear family to 17% of the nation; affordability, not only of home and work place but also transportation and child care are advantages; and as artists have known for years, being able to work when the spirit moves you, at any hour, has its advantages.

Today