Have you thought about how the current Pandemic will affect our future and the design decisions that we make when designing the spaces of the future? With the outbreak of COVID-19 and the practice of social distancing and self-isolation there will be a lot of changes to the way that architecture will be implemented in the future. It is too early to tell what type of long lasting impacts the virus will have and getting ahead of the situation and applying the knowledge that we have learned to make positive changes to the conditions of the working environment and the health of others will be important. We as designers will have to give careful considerations to the way that we will interact with others, move about in an office space, and overall workflow of the day-to-day routines. Accommodating and adhering to safety establishments that will surely be set in the months and perhaps even years to come will help us be more prepared for the future. It will be important to optimize the design of the space so that professionals are not disrupted or put in harms way of the virus.
It may be scary, perhaps even crazy to think of what the future of the office space holds for us. Things like skyscrapers and large corporate offices may not meet the requirements of working conditions after this situation ceases. We will be prompted to come up with logical solutions to things like over crowding and how we will be able to have interactions with co-workers while still maintaining a safe distance to prevent further contamination of the disease. Just as we have mentioned in other blog posts in the past, which talk about the design of the future office space, the idea behind having an office space with incites social interaction and more collaboration within a team setting, may not work down the line.
We will have to think about how proximity may no longer be as acceptable as it is now. There will be a major restructuring of office layouts so that we can take care of ventilation and the way that teams within an office spaces communicate. Perhaps that will be with the introduction of more technology in communication and even an overall change in the workflow for every position. You should start thinking about how the situation is impacting everyone today and how we can change/improve the situation for those of tomorrow. Direct contact with buttons, surfaces, etc. may be eliminated and the use of smart technology such as facial recognition and other types of scans may take over the physical interaction with the objects we come across with daily. It will be up to us to take a step back and carefully considerer all of the points which will have to be addressed with the situation.
