How will corona affect our homes and the built environment?

Sergey Makhno, an Ukrainian architect, designer, ceramist and collector based in Kyiv has published a very interesting discourse on dezeen.com about how the pandemic will affect our homes and the environment we live in.

The article is his responses to the global pandemic, forcing people around the world face the realities of self-isolation.

Sergey claims that: Life after the Covid-19 outbreak will never be the same as before.

“We are at the beginning of the end, waiting for a new beginning. Planet Earth will break its cooperation agreement with mankind unless we urgently revise our behavior.

The forecasts appear one by one. Some of them are more optimistic, some not. But almost everyone agrees that, despite a decline of such unprecedented scale, humanity will still find the strength to recover” he claims.

He believes that in the midst of the crisis humanity will shift their habits, lifestyles as well as start to adjust their living environment differently from now on.

He proceeds with seven predictions as to how we will shift our decision making from now on, which will have an unprecedented influence onto the build environment we live in.

Houses not apartments.

Sergey starts his discourse focusing on the current interaction most of the urban inhabitants have with their living spaces.

In cities, high-rise buildings have been built to accommodate for ever growing population. The prime idea behind such design decisions was always adaptability to high volume migrations and development. Cities happen as a response to human need for expansion and growth. In the building process health has never been much of a concern.

Today as humanity as a whole experiences the effect of global pandemic we face the small-box, apartment style reality we live in and start understanding its limitations, especially when health is the concern.

In times of pandemic people have to stay conscious as to how they interact with their built environment, limiting contact with everything that is so commonly used in multi-story buildings. Architectural elements such as elevators, elevator buttons, door handles, surfaces and above all the contact with other neighbors have already become a deadly thread.

Sergey claims that after forced time of isolation in buildings completely not suited for a situation such as this one people will dream of regaining their contact to nature, and change their living conditions into a more peripheral settings. Access to a small garden and a sense of autonomy will become more of a priority in terms of our living choices, than what we have ever considered before.

The main purpose of a home is shelter and safety. Today we get a whole new outlook on what those two principles mean to us. More than just an escape from a routine and urban chaos, our homes became retreats from viruses and infections.

With a high threat to our health and wellbeing people will start to prioritize other values than just the need for economic growth and expansion. As urban environments turn toxic, the privileged few, will navigate towards nature and autonomy.

Bunkers over open plan buildings

As his secondary point Sergey talks about survivalists, who for some time already, have been preparing for a forthcoming apocalypse. Perhaps it is an abstract though for many, but in countries so affected by the fairly recent World War, individuals still cultivate the concept of a potential crisis, which will force us to hide. Examples of such approaches can be seen all around the world and perhaps will rise again, after we have just been challenged into response again.

With current situation, the desire to prepare your space for a potential survival is no longer a fantastic movie script. Again, some more privileged individuals may look for solutions such as building a fortified garage next to the house, a hopper, or at least a fortified minus floor with a food pantry.

As an aftermath of the pandemic, Sergey claims that people will think of designing self-contained building entrances, where they can take off their clothes, shoes and leave their belongings on the street before entering the household sanctuary. According to him, open-plan houses will become less practical and suited.

Self-sufficient power and water.

Thus this far, self-sufficient power and water was reserved only for the few off-grid folks who obsesses about their living independency, this trend might turn mainstream, and the pandemic might just be the reason for it.

Some governments have put legal constraints on our ability to live off grid, but with the rising need for clean water and energy source, policies might have to change.

“The buildings of the future will be proud and independent, with their own water supply and heating. Geothermal wells are gaining popularity already. In addition to water, they can partially provide a home with heating.” Says Sergey.

Heating solutions will orient around a stove, fireplaces, solid fuel boiler, fuel generators and solar panels.

“Autonomous mini-stations generating alternative power will become a reality. The goal will be independence from the outside world, minimizing risks in the case of a full shutdown.”

Satellite Internet is at the moment an expensive an inconvenient choice however as economy will adjust to change, developments for civilian use will be accelerated and people will have an ability to use such services for survival.

“OneWeb and SpaceX were already planning to cover the entire planet with this technology before the pandemic began. OneWeb has already deployed 40 of a planned 648 satellites into the Earth’s orbit, while SpaceX’s Starlink project envisages the launch of 12,000 satellites into low orbit by the mid-2020s.”

Filtration and neutralization

With viruses, bacteria and other pandemo-genic organisms easily spreading through air and water, filtration systems with prove a necessary addition to each household.

“After the pandemic the trend will change, as people worry about what might happen if a virus gets into the water supply. To make sure, people will be willing to pay for the excavation, surveys and filtration systems needed to install a well.”

According to Sergey manufacturers of smart home systems will expand their services into controlling air quality within individual households, and if necessary will automatically clean it. Air from the outside will be filtered before it comes into he building.

If air-borne diseases become a more prominent thread, according to Sergey a room featuring antiseptic dispensers will necessary for people to pass through before they enter the house, as means of prevention of brining into the household any viruses or bacteria from the outside.

UV lamps can also be used for killing of viruses or bacteria; hence people might want to install them indoors.

Home as a new office

During the period of social distancing the whole world has moved into working from home.

Some of us cannot wait to get back to work, but a few people will actually decide to continue working remotely.

According to Sergey, people will invest in re-doing their office spaces at home. Moving from a “parody of a desk” as he calls it they will be more nudged to buy comfortable and better furniture to accommodate their workspaces into ideal arrangement.

Equally offices will update their conditions to attract workers back into their ecosystem.

Urban farming goes global.

Growing what you need to support your livelihood might become a necessity, which in turn will get people to either adapt cities to food production or all together move away from urban environments to nature.

The architect claims that quarantine may potentially be the best time to get to know more about indoor gardening and how to grow plants from seeds. All this with a purpose of creating food rotation, even if you live in a multi-story building. In addition to producing food, indoor gardens can provide oxygen. The trend in phytowalls has been around for many years, but we have not explored the full potential it offers for interior design.

There are also other natural organisms that filter air from fine dust particles, such as moss. One of the businesses I work with is called Green City Solutions and they do precisely that by growing moss in beautifully designed wooden city structures. Check them out!

Going even deeper into the subject of indoor gardening, In his article Sergey talks about underground food farms.

“You could develop an underground basement with a garden, mini cheese factory or a winery. Of course, you need extra equipment here: artificial lighting, water and air filtration, soil fertilizer. But it would be worth it for fresh tomatoes.”

Indeed this world’s vision would be very sad for us to experience and hopefully it will never come about, but if necessary truth is humanity will have to do everything to adapt, no questions asked.

Rejection of mass industry.

Only after a week of a lock-down we can see blue skies in China, clean water in Venice and reduced air pollution in cities all around the world.

Sergey says that there will be more pleasant discoveries to have ahead.

“The new world will be about things that matter”.

People will make more responsible buying decisions; they will move differently, live differently, eat differently and gather differently.

People will value natural building materials and sustainable solutions over the common cheap and polluting ones.

People will care more, weather products they buy, or use harm the planet. Governments will have to strengthen their global manufacturing to re-gain independence from import or export.

Lets hope that the new world, that we may get forced to adapt to, brings more beauty and values of community and service to the planet, despite the trigger- there can always be a better tomorrow.

Follow me on Medium and join my Facebook group for architects that want to turn their knowledge into courses for other architects to learn here.