Creating Your Safe Space

Change is coming, and years of architect experience in the design of commercial office space, restaurants, and schools are going to be tested by the advent of COVID-19.

This test will not be the final exam but rather a pop quiz, as new biological challenges will continue to emerge and be dealt with by those professionals charged with designing our work and recreation environments.

Notwithstanding the stunning advances that medical science has made in the last two centuries, addressing newly emerging pathogens that cross into the human population due to mutating DNA and dangerous sanitary and eating practices will be a continuing challenge.

A different war may need to be fought each time a pandemic-causing virus emerges, and architects, not just doctors, will be at the forefront of that battle.

Open-plan office design was only recently perceived to be a facilitator of intra-office communication and collaboration. Today, it is perceived as an impediment to returning to work.