Has COVID-19 Pandemic re-landscaped Architecture?
May 21, 2020
Who really believed that a ‘simple’ cold-like virus would become a global pandemic in such a short amount of time and have leaders of countries across the world urgently searching for solutions. A virus that has decimated employment and cross border markets and yet has taught us about what might actually be important in our lives.
The world is clearly going to become a tougher place economically. America continues to be divisive on the world’s stage and Europe is in the throes of working out its own political future. Both of these major economies appear to have become more inward-looking. This means that we have to find our own ways of solving our own needs.
Architecture and design are once again adapting to finding meaningful solutions for our societies.
It strikes me that there are two key issues that we need to continue to address.
As the world’s resources remain finite, sustainability remains at the top of our economic and design agenda. The recent climate talks in Poland have shown the difficulties in finding pan world goals but they have highlighted the very real issues that we all must address. And finally, we are remembering that sustainability is not just about energy. We have known for many years that our buildings must make prudent use of energy. Careful harvesting of the sun, wind ensure environments we can enjoy whether walking in the shade in shopping complexes to providing sophisticated cooling/heating in our buildings that we live and work in. Design is now looking at the integration of the places we live in with those we work and play in to provide that sustainable future. At the forefront of much current thinking is how we create clusters of communities rather than just create cities. It is true that cities are often clusters of communities because that simply is how they have developed. But too often those communities have been subsumed into the greater city and have lost their identity and social strengths. Now with careful understanding and community involvement, those identities and strengths are reforming. This time we can integrate where we live, work, produce our food, produce energy, shop, and enjoy our leisure successfully and responsibly.
The other key issue is how we ensure our aging population remains a vibrant part of our future.
In recent years, as society has fractured and our young have moved, sometimes far away to live and work, the elderly have become isolated and often live with little support or money. In some ways, the current high cost of housing has meant many have continued to live at home with their parents. The young, however always and rightly, aspire to their independence and lives.
How we provide and care for our elderly has been a challenge that a select few have been involved with and a number of models have been explored. On one hand, we have large houses around a golf course with supporting services and on the other, we have clusters of rooms or small flats with high levels of provided support. In-between there are elderly ‘villages’ with both independent and supported living with a range of facilities and activities from structured exercise to gardening within them.
The opportunity is now how to design these villages within and at the core of our communities/cities. As we look to these challenges with relish we hope you will join us on this exciting adventure.
By James Carr. Partner, Maginaires, UK
