16 I People
Room to breathe:
Reinventing urban design to withstand future pandemics BY ANNABELLE MATHERS, CIVIL ENGINEERING, 2022
T
he idea of transforming cities into ideal, or even relatively effective, urban spaces that accommodate physical distancing and large fluctuations in public behavior can seem overwhelming, especially in the tumultuous wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This task, as a whole, is enormous on an economic, political, and social level, with an innumerable amount of moving parts and complex factors. Fortunately, urban planners, engineers, and architects are working to develop cost-conscious changes that make cities more flexible and functionally dynamic in preparation for future times of great sickness. It may not presently be possible to create components of a city that completely prevent viral transmission; however, this effort may decrease transmission and urban shutdowns, improve quarantine experiences, and accelerate societal recovery. Across different countries, climates, and local cultures, the priorities of urban inhabitants differ. Thus, there may be widely nuanced applications of solutions pertaining to common areas of concern including offices, environmental psychology, infrastructure, and communal public spaces. Ongoing research now attempts to consider and mull these evolving factors as the wait continues for more consistent statistical analysis. Fear, harbored by a more wary public, now challenges trends like open-concept offices, high density infrastructure, and community spaces that encourage physical interaction. Instead of creating spaces that perpetually enforce social and physical distancing, society may work toward facilitating spaces that are, whenever necessary, creatively flexible enough to accommodate varying degrees of societal change without complete separation and shutdown. This transitional concept of urban design allows the public to weigh the risks and rewards with societal changes and expenditures, and can be applied toward epidemics of different severities and characteristics. Public health must be maintained; however, the drastic application of rigid lifestyle changes and physical distancing in perpetuity has already pushed people to reevaluate the balance of risk and PHOTO BY GUS MUELLER, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 2023
DESIGN BY KRISTI BUI, COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2021
reward. Urban improvements have to consider this sense of realism, while also envisioning an ingenuitive society beyond its current state. Private homes and spaces highlight the smaller, and realistically easier changes that may still be relatively important to individuals. Environmental psychology, in particular, permeates the boundaries of public and private spaces. This term refers to the study of the way in which the surrounding world, mostly built and natural environments in this application, affects mental wellbeing. With the lines blurred between work and home during quarantine, the uncomfortable physical and mental confines of homemade office spaces, and rooms in general, are more apparent. In other words, the spatial chaos of quarantine may distort spatial associations and comforts held by the average person. Adaptive spaces in homes are especially helpful for remote workers, where multifunctional rooms and interior setups enable individuals to more comfortably reallocate space for work and leisure. Public office spaces may also need to question and reorganize spaces and priorities for meetings, cubicles, foot traffic, and shared spaces like kitchens. Offices that lack private, distanced workspaces, and that encourage a high degree of collaboration in shared spaces, now may consider temporary strategies for a more independent, spatially restrictive work environment. Although not every existing office can be retrofitted to become perfectly flexible in terms of physical spaces, it is the general open-mindedness toward preparation and adaptation that may be beneficial. Additional questions arise regarding whether reinvigorated appreciation for outdoor spaces and spacious interiors will affect architectural design of urban homes that lack the backyards and square-footage of suburban ones. A desire for rooftop and urban gardens, windows, and natural light in homes has the potential to grow considering the burden that a tiny apartment may place on mental health during quarantine. TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, VISIT NUSCIMAG.COM OSF Preprints (2020). DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/rf7xa Emerald Open Research (2020). DOI: 10.35241/emeraldopenres.13561.1 KnE Engineering (2017). DOI: 10.18502/keg.v2i2.596
