Host: “Hello my future architects, established professionals, and dear listeners who are interested in architecture and its development. Today’s episode is going to be special as I’ve invited many outstanding professionals of the field all over the world. It is not a secret the 2020th has started as Hollywood catastrophe-movie. But over the time we calmed down and learned to deal with the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. In today’s episode I would really like to talk to my guests about architecture after pandemic period. What really interests me and hopefully you, my listeners, is would architecture have to change to adapt to the new reality. If yes, what new tendencies should we expect and how would they be implemented? To sort out all these questions and concerns, I’ve invited a Principal Architect and Green Architecture Consultant of A.P. de Jesus and Associates Firm in Philippines – Amado de Jesus, Senior Associate of the Gensler Architecture Firm – Lisa Adkins, the world’s acknowledge architect – Steven Holl, an amazing partner of architectural giant Diller+Scofidio Group – Elizabeth Diller, and a young and well-established architect – Cathleen Taylor. Good afternoon everyone and thank you so much for being here with us today.”
The guests greet the host and audience.
Host: “So my first question to all of you would be “Was architecture industry in general ready to face such conditions as a Pandemic?”
Amado de Jesus: “Well, from the experience and history, we can definitely say that it wasn’t for the first time when world got caught by a surprise of the burst of the pandemic. Probably, we just all hoped that it wouldn’t happen to us in the 21st century – the century of high technologies and advanced Health Care System. But as I said, the architects of the past had dealt with the spread of diseases and coped quite successfully with their tasks. The most vivid examples would be Hausmann’s renovation of Paris in the 1800s, when in the response to the large development of the city a new system of fresh water supply and sewers was introduces in a large scale. Another great examples are London’s infrastructure renovation in the wake of the city’s 1954 cholera outbreak, and the reaction of New York City to the miserable conditions of tenement housing. These past examples show us that global pandemics have forced the architecture and urban planning to evolve in the past, and that Covid-19 pandemic would definitely bring changes in future building environment.”
Cathleen Taylor: “I agree with my colleague and would like to add that my firm and me personally have already dealt with the fight of viruses and designed a new hospital for treatment of air-borne viruses in Butare, Rwanda. We implemented a new approach of the spatial arrangement in the hospital, by moving all the means of circulation outside, and devoting the interior space to the patients and medical stuff only. We also introduced a window access with the beautiful views to every patient what also helped to achieve cross-ventilation. I admit that the design of such facility hardly be possible in the climate zone of New York State, for example. But I am sure that in the future architects would overcome such considerations by closely focusing on the local climate and ecosystem of the site.”
Host: “As we started to talk about Medical field of architecture what other innovations and improvements should be introduced to the design of hospitals?”
Amado de Jesus: “I think to increase the capacity of sick people in hospitals we should design a hospital room in a way that it can be easily transformed into ICU. I offer to eliminate waiting area, substituting it to a compact nook with RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to track and alert patients.”
Host: “Should all the attention of architects be focused on designing and innovating hospitals? What about other areas like people’s houses, schools, offices? Would they have to face any rearrangements in the future?”
Steven Holl: “The current situation sends us all to the first grade. And that’s something that I think is a positive since we’ve spent the last few decades basically wrecking the Earth. In my opinion the residential architecture would see its rise in the rural areas, where green, self-sufficient houses would introduce a new hype of architecture putting the relation between human and nature in balance.”
Host: “What about the cities? Would they have to disappear? Sounds like an apocalyptical science-fiction scenario.”
Amado de Jesus: “Definitely cities are not going anywhere. But we as architects would have to redesign them with two major considerations – the accommodation of the sudden growth of sick people by providing medical supplies, spaces, and cemeteries in large scale, and by resuming the city life as normal as possible by accommodating residential buildings with functional and healthy spaces. I agree with Steven Holl and firmly believe that the concepts of green architecture would play an essential role in bringing natural light and proper ventilation in homes.”
Elizabeth Diller: “I think that future architecture should involve a new principle in its development – the fourth dimension – time. I strongly believe that the perfect model of the future city is the Highline Park, located in Manhattan. The elevated park helps to control the flow of its visitors by the means of forked pathways, and visitor’s density introducing distanced seating areas. The park above the city also makes busy streets and subways less crowded as people gain a choice to travel along beautiful landscape.”
Host: “Very interesting observations. Thank you. Another question I can’t help to ask is the future of educational establishments. As an architecture student myself, we’ve been on a distance learning for over the year, and many students and their parents can’t wait to be back on campus. When the time comes will we come back to the same buildings as we left?”
Steven Holl: “No, most likely the colleges, schools and campuses would have to undergo changes as well. My firm’s current project is for Medical School College in Bogota. The building is only two stories, and it is all outside. The main feature of the campus is the central courtyard which embraces the nature and brings it to the campus. The spatial arrangement of the auditoriums allows students to be involved in education from outside. I really think that this building is a perfect example of campus architecture of post-Covid time. But at the same time, I must agree with Cathleen that such concept highly depends on the climate and environment where it is going to be built. For the areas with four-seasons climate, in my opinion, the concept can still be introduced by shifting school year to warmers months of the year. Additional portable heating devices could be introduced for outdoor auditoriums as an option.”
Host: “What about the office buildings?”
Lisa Adkins: “My firm has been specializing on office buildings arrangements for many years. We’ve worked with giant corporations and publishers from all over the world. The Covid-19 has influenced our industry since many employees were made to work from home. We still think that office space is vital for companies and its employees since not everyone has an opportunity to work from home on daily basis. Our main concept is to treat the work environment as a creative collaboration space rather than the space for everyday tasks performance. The goal of our firm is to make an office building an optional workplace which would be an ideal solution for many working parents. In order to make workplaces safer environment we intend to introduce new regulations like bring your own device policy, application-operated digital facilities, self-cleaned and disinfected surfaces, touchless doors and elevators.”
Host: “Thank you so much for such a productive conversation. Unfortunately, time of our episode is running out. I would like to shortly conclude our guests’ opinions and agree that the architecture would have to change in the future. Honestly, it was a relief to find out that architects of the past dealt with the circumstances of pandemic and did it quite successfully. As a result, their experience brought not only safer environment but a new movements and trends in Modern architecture. All these make me hope that Covid-19 will bring new tendencies to the architecture of 21st century as well. To conclude, I would like to add that we all live during difficult and unpredictable time. But I tend to look at things from positive side, and I believe that we live during remarkably interesting time as well, the time, when the old established normal would have to change to accept a new reality. Thank you so much for listening to our Podcast and see you next episode.”
