Designing for COVID-2x: Reflecting on Future-Proofing Human Habitation for the Inevitable Next Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2022 has revealed the vulnerability of modern society to a highly contagious airborne virus. Many spaces in the urban and built environment designed during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century are ill-suited to maintain the level of social distancing required to reduce the probability of virus transmission. Enclosed spaces—in particular, communal circulation spaces such as corridors, elevators and lobbies—have proven loci of transmission, together with circulating reticulated air and lack of proper ventilation. While urban planning needs to incorporate the lessons learnt during COVID-19 in order to future-proof our communities through the provision of well-designed greenspaces, the main burden will fall on architects, who will play an instrumental role in designing buildings that are fit-for purpose. This conceptual paper reviews the status quo and discusses a number of strategies to future-proof human habitation for the inevitable next pandemic.

Architecture for a Post-COVID World

“…While academic and practitioner interest in green and healthy architecture existed before, the global impact of COVID-19 spurred on a variety of research with increasing numbers of papers in 2020 and 2021 [6,7]. Given that SARS-Cov-2 is an airborne virus, spreading primarily through the inhaling of, or contact with, aerosols and droplets, and given that airborne viruses can persist in poorly ventilated spaces, it is not surprising that a central thread common to most papers in this Special Issue are concerns relating to adequate ventilation and air exchange that need to be addressed in any post-COVID design [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Ducted (reticulated) heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, or airconditioning mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems in those countries that do not require heating, are prevalent in most office complexes, hotels, medical and educational facilities as well many private homes.…”

“…This would allow for the compartmentalization and thus the relative isolation of private spaces from public circulation areas. Such design can then be augmented by engineering controls [9].…”

“…Engineering solutions advocated by Navaratnam [7] see the installation of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems to purify the air of the upper zones in a room. Concepts advocated by Amran et al [13] and Spennemann [9] propose floor or otherwise low-mounted air returns relying on positive pressure to drawn potentially contaminated air away from people's faces, with the air either expelled to the exterior or passed through filter or other purification systems.…”

“…In addition to ventilation, the contributions by Navaratnam et al [7], Elrayies [14] and Spennemann [9] cover a range of aspects of innovative building design to be considered to future proof new structures. These aspects range from the fundamental to the specific.…”

“…The underlying principle of future dwelling design sees the compartmentalization of the occupation zones, from the potentially contaminated external space through a decontamination space into the actual home. Additional compartmentalization in the home between guest accessible and private spheres further aids to contain transmission from visitors to the family [9,10,14]. Elrayies further advocates design options that allow one to install, or extract (from cavities), moveable walls that can allow for the compartmentalization of otherwise open plan designs in times of need [14].…”