COVER STORY
Welcome to the post-pandemic future by Elizabeth Morse Read
As we now approach the end of the Covid-19 tunnel that we entered fifteen months ago, we’re eager to get back to our pre-pandemic lives. But a funny thing happened on the way to recovery. Just as security measures at airports and government buildings were forever transformed after 9/11, so, too, have our daily lives after surviving the deadliest pandemic in over a century. A man’s home is his castle… and workplace… and school… and gym…
After months of being cooped up with other family members in either a city apartment or a suburban home, we’ve all become acutely aware of how our open-plan “home-sweet-home” was not designed for homeschooling plus adults working remotely plus everyone exercising indoors plus, plus, plus. As our home address morphs into our work/study/play address, we need better definition of our interior spaces – we need sound-proofed walls, doors and flexible walls for privacy, and multi-purpose spaces, such as a garage subdivided into a workshop and gym, or schoolrooms/offices that convert into entertainment areas at night. Also, we will expect improved HVAC climate control indoors, and sanitation features like mudroom/laundry/delivery
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rooms providing a transition from the germ-filled outdoor world to the clean interior. Houses will include smart home features like voice/motion-activated appliances, lighting, home entry, toilets and faucets, even germ-resistant flooring and countertops, as well as more storage space for food, water, and energy generation/storage. Post-pandemic home design will bring the outdoors in as much as possible – balconies, roof gardens, winterized porches with sliding glass walls, roof windows and atriums to provide light and natural ventilation and to create private “outdoor” space.
Home office sweet home office
Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg may expect his employees to return to the workplace once they’ve been vaccinated, but after a year of working
May 2021 | The South Coast Insider
from home (WFH), many Americans (especially women) aren’t looking forward to returning to the pre-pandemic commuter rat-race. Half of the world’s white-collar workers (vs. only 11% pre-pandemic) are now working from home. A whopping 42% of the US workforce – white-collar office workers – have been working from home full-time since the pandemic began. Sixty percent of them want to work remotely indefinitely, and according to an online survey of more than 1,000 WFH professionals, almost 30% said they’d quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue to work from home remotely. Employers who don’t provide this work-life flexibility are going to have trouble recruiting and retaining talented employees in the future. Human resource managers are already considering schedules that allow employees to work
