What will happen after Coronavirus? New perspectives of the Architecture’s world
One thing is certain: after the Coronavirus pandemic our cities, houses, buildings, workplaces and public spaces will undergo a transformation and reorganization! Architects, urban planners and designers will have the task of converting their visions into concrete solutions to make our world safer for the future. Nowadays the concentration of people in the metropolises is very dense because they are the fulcrum of the economic activities that act as driving force for innovation and development. Despite this, the lockdown is showing us a different side of the urban centers that are now ghost cities: In a few weeks we have witnessed a change in our perception and relationship with these places.
Image by MBA Architects
For this reason, professionals now have a more fundamental role than ever in redesign spaces, from the city to the domestic sphere
Image by Jean-Paul Jandrain from Pixabay
Let’s see what are the main points about the issue!
Social distance
We will go back to work and school and meet again in restaurants, theaters or stadiums, but our habits will have to change because cities are epicenters for the transmission of diseases. This threat must not make cities lose vitality: we just have to rethink spaces to make them more functioning for new needs. In places of aggregation it will be necessary to evaluate the capacity on the basis of the structures’ size and establish a safety distance to prevent the spread of other possible pandemics. Stations, subways, buses, trains, airports already waiting for new design projects. We need wider sidewalks, spaces protected from traffic to distance ourselves sufficiently, new play areas and public parks, in order to raise awareness among the future generations of a new concept of space.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The central role of houses
By following the health safety measures, we are all spending more time at home and we are realizing how important it is to live in a house that provides social isolation and it is the most independent as possible from the outside.
Image by Paolo Chieselli from Pixabay
There are trends that are gaining popularity to make our homes an almost self-sufficient micro world. For example, we will have soon new resources for heating, small stations for electricity’s generation, indoor gardens and phytowalls to create a cozy, fresh and healthy domestic environment.
Image by MBA Photography 2020
New workplaces and offices at home!
The smart working we are all experiencing could become a new cultural habit in the future, for this reason it will be necessary to design houses with rooms used as offices: architects are going to use their imagination to create environments full of light with a stimulating atmosphere to guarantee workers’ productivity.
Co-working in wide spaces, a winning idea of the past, needs to be rethought because the control of one's own space after this emergency will become much more important. Designers are reasoning about virus-resistant workplaces with a focus on the health of workers.
Moreover, open-spaces will be replaced separated rooms for a better isolation and to reduce the transmission of bacteria.
Image by Imagine Maw from Pixabay
Buildings will be adapted with spaces and guided routes to stimulate the social distance we talked about before. Technologies will play a key role in creating smart environments where you don’t have to touch the door knob or press the elevator button, but all these gestures will be controlled through an app or through new advanced tools.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
Architects and designers, like other categories, are affected by the economic difficulties caused by the epidemic, but in the immediate future they will have to find concrete solutions for a challenging post-emergency phase.
The Coronavirus will change the priorities of people: this might be the starting point for a process of transformation in the way architects think, work and communicate.
Sources: https://www.dezeen.com/2020/03/25/life-after-coronavirus-impact-homes-design- architecture/
https://www.mbaphotography.net/
