Illustration: A frazzled looking person in a messy living room with two kids running around and a dog. Text: In 2020, bedrooms became offices, and dining rooms became schools.
Illustration: People wearing masks walking in a city street with no cars. Text: Streets are now for walking
Illustration: People wearing masks sitting at an outdoor restaurant table. Text: “and sidewalks are for eating.“
Text: The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us all to pay more attention to the spaces we inhabit and consider how they could work better for us. Illustration: 4. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us all to pay more attention to the spaces we inhabit and consider how they could work better for us. Alt text: A man stands next looking at a small table covered with toy sized buildings, cars and trees, he holds a building in his hand. He’s saying: “It really feels like people are going to have much lower tolerance for mediocre spaces.” –Mark Faulkner, architect, PAU
Text: The great upheaval caused by a pandemic inevitably shifts how we understand, use and construct our built environments.
Illustration: Close-up of feet standing on physically distanced “stand here” signs on the floor.
Illustration: A worker in a hard hat holding a drill is putting up a hand-sanitizing station on a wall.
Illustration: A woman in a grocery store check-out line gestures through plexiglass to the register clerk.
Text: After the Black Death in 1350, construction in Norway almost completely halted for 200 years — so great was the human devastation. Illustration: Two Lincoln-log style toy farm buildings, a pile of logs in a heap nearby, a chicken in the yard.
Text: When construction did resume under Danish rule, homes and public structures were built very differently, influenced by the architecture of their new international trading partners. Illustration: A hand placing a fancier looking toy building with windows next to two other modern buildings.
Text: “After the cholera outbreaks of the 19th century, London built a sewer network and cleaned up the Thames…“ Illustration: the grim reaper rowing in a boat on the river Thames.
Text: “… creating new outdoor public spaces for people to use.“ Illustration: Two carriages drawn by horses drive along a tree-lined river embankment.
Text: “Before antibiotic drugs were developed to treat tuberculosis in the 1940s, the main preventive measures were fresh air and abundant sunshine — a big influence on the clean lines, big windows and airy spaces of modernist architecture in the early 20th century“ Illustration: three patients lie in bed in a spacious airy room, a nurse tends to one patient, another nurse is opening a big window.
Text: “. Before antibiotic drugs were developed to treat tuberculosis in the 1940s, the main preventive measures were fresh air and abundant sunshine — a big influence on the clean lines, big windows and airy spaces of modernist architecture in the early 20th century.“ Illustration: three patients lie in bed in a spacious airy room, a nurse tends to one patient, another nurse is opening a big window.
Text: “This will not be the last pandemic, so we need to be prepared.“ Illustration: A man stands looking at small table covered in toy sized buildings, another man walks away carrying a box of toys.
Quote: “For architecture to respond to the virus, architecture has to behave like the virus.” –Carson Chan, architecture writer and curator. Illustration: a man pulls toy sized buildings from a box, a table with similar buildings is in the background.
Text: Chan envisions mobile, modular, adaptive structures that can be deployed during an outbreak to provide shelter for people in quarantine.
Illustration: One of three different “rooms” seen through openings in floor to ceiling white curtains.
Illustration: One of three different “rooms” seen through openings in floor to ceiling white curtains.
Illustration: One of three different “rooms” seen through openings in floor to ceiling white curtains.
Text: “In Italy, an architect designed mobile off-grid pavilions that will be installed in 1,500 piazzas throughout the country for vaccinations… Illustration: A circular pavilion packaged like a new toy, the packaging says “vaccine pavilion,” “new” “collect them all.” 17...while in the UK architects have proposed repurposing shipping containers as mobile vaccination units.“ Illustration: A large shipping container packaged like a toy, the packaging says “mobile vaccination center” and “made in the UK.”
Text: “...while in the UK architects have proposed repurposing shipping containers as mobile vaccination units.“ Illustration: A large shipping container packaged like a toy, the packaging says “mobile vaccination center” and “made in the UK.”
Text: “Others have designed pop-up schools that facilitate social distancing and reconfigured restaurants to minimize contacts between customers and staff.“ Illustration: A portion of a city block with restaurants featuring “open for takeout” signs and outdoor tented seating, pedestrians walking and sitting, the street asphalt curls into a large roll on the right.
Text: One question is how long temporary changes like sidewalk dining and road closures will last, says Chan. Another is how fast we can roll them out the next time a pandemic strikes. Illustration: A portion of a city block with restaurants featuring “open for takeout” signs and outdoor tented seating, pedestrians walking and sitting, the street asphalt curls into a large roll on the right.
Text: “For many people, the pandemic has forced a critical reevaluation of the built environment they know best:“ Illustration: Table with 4 doll houses on it
Text: “their home.“ Illsutration: Table with an open doll house with visible interior and a lamp shining on it from above.
Text: “Open floor plans have dominated American homes for decades.“ Illustration: the interior of an open floor home, couch and fireplace
Text: In the 1980s and ’90s, people wanted big, showy spaces for entertaining (and impressing) guests. Illustration: kitchen with counter and island
Text: “But now not so much. Long periods of lockdown have revealed a need for private spaces and multiple activities within the home.“ Illustration: Alessandra Wood shown standing, she holds a toy-sized shelf in her hand that she’s placing into a living room, in her other hand she holds a toy-sized rug.
Quote: “We’re seeing people get creative in how to divide spaces without necessarily putting up walls.” –Alessandra Wood, design historian, Modsy. Illustration: Alessandra Wood shown standing, she holds a toy-sized shelf in her hand that she’s placing into a living room, in her other hand she holds a toy-sized rug.
Text: Dedicated work spaces inside homes are probably here to stay. Illustration: A small table with a computer on it and giant balance ball chair, a treadmill is next to the table.
Text: But offices offer workers more than just a desk and chair. They also provide chances to bump into colleagues and spontaneously share ideas.
Quote: “There’s this idea of serendipity, right? It does not happen over a Zoom call.” –Mark Faulkner, architect, PAU Illustration: Faulkner stands next to an office water cooler and waves to a colleague walking by.
Text: “Post pandemic, companies might want to focus less on designing private offices and individual work stations —“ Illustration: cut away views of two typical offices with walls, one has cubicles.
Text: “– and more on meeting rooms and other areas where employees come together.” Illustration: cut away view of an airy conference room with a table and chairs next to an outside table under a wooden roof with tables and benches, trees in the background.
Text: “The pandemic might also encourage designs that allow people to move more fluidly through buildings and minimize the need to touch things through the use of features like automatic doors and faucets.” Illustration: A guy with his hands in his pockets walking into a building through touchless automatic doors
Text: “As people have spent more time at home during the pandemic, many have spent more time walking, running or riding through their neighborhoods.“Illustration: several people on a city street talking, waving to each other, some with dogs, some in pairs, a jogger, people seated at an outdoor dining table.
Text: “In a perfect world, that might lead to a renewed sense of community — and a push for the kind of architecture that fosters it.“ Illustration: several people on a city street talking, waving to each other, some with dogs, some in pairs, a jogger, people seated at an outdoor dining table.
Text: “New York, like many cities, banned cars in some areas to give pedestrians more room for social distancing during the pandemic. Nearly a quarter of the area of Manhattan is devoted to cars — 2,450 acres of streets and 970 acres of parking—roughly four times the area of Central Park.“ Illustration: a jigsaw puzzle piece with city buildings and cars in 3D atop it.
Text: What if the city instituted a permanent ban on private vehicles?
Text: “Banning cars would speed up mass transit and deliveries, create green spaces for walking and cycling, and help fight air pollution and climate change.” Illustration: A view of Manhattan skyline from the side, an oversized giant construction worker wearing a hard hat is scooping up cars in one hand.
Text: “A push for more pedestrian-friendly cities was already underway in some places, but the pandemic may give it a boost.” Illustration: The same giant construction worker’s other arm is placing an elevated train in front of the buildings; trees and people walking have replaced the cars.
Text: “In many places, housing is designed to provide privacy from the neighbors, not foster a sense of community, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” Illustration: Three houses, each with fences separating them, surrounded by trees.
Text: “Homes could be built to better accommodate multi-generational families and provide better access to communal outdoor spaces.” Illustration: Three houses, one has a playground next to it, fences are gone.
Text: “But those things will happen only if people demand it.” Quote: “I can’t see things changing unless the market allows it or unless states decide that the market doesn’t matter as much as people’s health.” –Shumi Bose, architectural historian, University of the Arts London Illustration: Shumi Bose stands next to a table covered with toy-sized houses, a playground and trees.
Text: “The pandemic has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine our built environments — if we care enough (and dare enough) to take it.” Illustration: A clear box filled with toy-sized buildings and trees, next to it are a doll house, a skyscraper, a car, a bus, a tree and a jigsaw puzzle piece of asphalt. Two clouds sketched in the background.

This piece was produced in cooperation with the Nib