The Future of Building Design Post-COVID-19

We as humans are nothing if not adaptable. We've had to adapt to a fluid situation as COVID-19 forced us into isolation quickly for the last six months. Social distancing requires us to avoid gathering places like supermarkets, restaurants, bars, and the office.

As we slowly begin to return to daily life, school, and work, we're returning to vastly different environments. As a result of the virus, we are beginning to examine the role of building design in disease transmission and design the built environment to make it healthier and reduce risk.

Re-evaluating Building Design, Changing For The Future

As we slowly emerge from sheltering in place, it's been hard not paying attention to our homes these past few months. Many of us have spent some of our free time on a few DIY projects to make it more comfortable. However, the emergence of COVID-19 has inspired the design community to reevaluate their approach to building design for a world that might not ever be the same as it was.

This isn't the first time we've had to reexamine design in response to disease. London reconfigured its infrastructure in response to the city's 1954 cholera epidemic. However, even though we're still learning the lessons COVID-19 is teaching us, a few ideas have emerged in response.

Deep Work Chambers: Welcome to the Anti-Office

One of the lessons that COVID has taught us is the resiliency of the workforce. As workers were sent home to work virtually, companies have explored how the workplace could duplicate the experience's positives. Businesses are reexamining the need for brick and mortar as workers begin to reach their stride working virtually. The jury is still out, but what we've learned so far is that working from home has shown the benefits of a balance of isolated concentration and productive, meaningful collaboration, and designers have noticed. Businesses are seeking to recreate this atmosphere in a socially distanced workplace.

If the virtual experiment is successful, if it proves that we are, in fact, more productive outside of the traditional office, it will reinforce designers' findings and fundamentally change the value of shared workspace.

Moving to a more shared public space, almost everyone predicts that these spaces will begin to automate. In fact, COVID has already sped up the development of touchless technology of all kinds, including automatic doors, cellphone-controlled entry, voice-activated elevators, hands-free smart lighting and temperature control, and even advanced airport check-in and security.

In terms of large-scale gathering spaces like sports, arenas, and stadiums, they are in the process of retrofitting. Introducing more opportunities for sanitizing and hand washing and introducing RFID for touchless purchasing. In addition to the metal detectors, we may even see some form of UV disinfecting or temperature screening for entry.

Innovations… On a Smaller Scale

While architects and contractors are beginning to examine building design on a macro level, designers are thinking smaller. They are increasingly looking to materials and fabrics that feature antibacterial properties, including natural materials like copper, and new materials yet to be inevitably developed.

Within hotels, we're beginning to see amenities like self-cleaning bathrooms and "pod rooms," smaller modular spaces that can be sealed off from other guests and quickly torn down and disinfected. Airflow and HVAC are also being addressed with ventilation strategies playing a role in reducing transmission.

In commercial spaces, hospitals, hotels, and other large gathering spaces, traffic patterns are also being adjusted to keep people socially distanced. While we all hope social distancing will be a temporary action, COVID has caused architects to think about future viruses in designing open spaces that avoid congestion and enable and encourage people to spread out. Bathrooms are being redesigned with specific traffic patterns such as independent entry and exit doors to reduce contact.

As we move beyond this pandemic, building design principles will continue evolve. The pre-pandemic modern building was generally designed to promote social mixing – from the open-concept living in residential construction to the open-concept office where many workers share collaborative space. By promoting chance encounters and interaction, open layouts generate creativity; unfortunately, they are also effective at spreading viruses.

While it may not be practical to make significant changes in office design in the short term, understanding how people work and how the layout of shared space affects disease transmission will help develop effective distancing measures. This knowledge will determine when people can safely go back to the workplace.

Conclusion

In the end, the lessons learned through the Covid pandemic helped us to improve building design. with this, his increased knowledge will keep us safer and more comfortable. Plus help us be better prepared for the next time we're confronted with a health challenge like COVID-19.

With In Green Living, Joni Keefe shares nature-based design choices for buildings, urban greenspaces, and Interior Design. Her interests follow Real Estate & housing sustainable agriculture, eco-friendly building products, and the latest trends in green design. She is a published writer with horticultural design work featured in national publications.