Spatial Design: When Covid is Here to Stay

 People are still dreaming of the old days before Covid-19, but the world never turns back around. Even though this pandemic shall pass, more challenges are emerging and waiting for us. Preparing for these challenging new roads ahead are many designers’ main focus. Especially in the field of spatial design in both personal and public spaces. For spatial design, reducing infections risks and virus spreads and preparing for future emerging infectious disease (EID) becomes the focal point. Let’s explore these spatial design trends and find the new emerging possibilities together. 

 

 

Fitting the World into the Home

People’s definition of home changed greatly these days. Pre-Covid, a “home” is just a space to sleep and relax, now when leaving home is difficult and risky many people started to look to more activities they could do at home like exercise, work, movies and shopping etc. Designing the favourite spot in the new-era home requires deeper understanding. And also, personalising the space to inhabitants’ lifestyle needs like a fitness area, a cinema nook, a fully-equipped kitchen and a productivity-inspired home office setup. Creating a multifunctional home, an all-rounded, happiness filled everyday home.

 

On another note, Lumpini Wisdom, a research and consultancy firm under LPN network, conducted survey research revealing that Smart Residences growth average is more than 40% per year. These Smart homes are spaces that are functional in terms of living, environmentally friendly, and bring in technologies for modern and convenient lifestyles. These also include designs that support the health and safety aspects like good airflow circulation, sensor-activated appliances which is what Post-Covid consumers are looking for in a home.

 

 

New Perspective on Public Spaces

Innovative spatial designs are not just about creating new things for the new normal life but also bringing “System Thinking” in to utilise the space through a new perspective, for instance, Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York, one of the firsts where vaccinated population ratios enable them to lift the lockdown restrictions and return to life as normal again. Rewinding a bit to mid-2020, New York’s experience with the Covid-19 pandemic is still on high alert, circles were drawn on the grass and official rules were imposed so that people who craved the outdoors to stay distant from each other and safely enjoyed the sun. The idea reflects human resilience, social responsibility, and cooperation where everyday life can be enjoyed along with continuing to prevent the spread of the virus.

 

Another interesting case in Hong Kong, the “Brief Encounters” project, a public spatial design that brings us together without worry. The project tried to address both the public’s craving for physical interactivities and worries about the ongoing pandemic. Meeting each other in person with colourful plastic sheet partitions in between putting our mind at ease and feeling safer. The designers put together with steel frames and transparent sheets into accordion folds for easy setup and transport. The folds curves create new different dimensions for the space, transforming into a livelier and more colourful one. You can see each other through the transparent materials, doesn’t make them feel like they are being restricted around them. Seems like we will be seeing more of this spatial design in the future of the new Covid-19 era.

 

 

A Mixture of Nature and Spatial Design

When life is on a rapid beat, always running after new technologies and Covid is also an accelerator of accumulating stress. Humans like us need to find a quick fix, healing our mentality, through nature therapy and green. Reviving the green into the urban life became a running trend for future architectural design that gained more attention in the Covid-19 era like the project Skylines from Lissoni Casal Ribeiro which received an honourable mention from Skyhive 2020 Skyscraper Challenge. The idea behind the project was to create a “vertical forest” on the side of the skyscrapers building structure in the city centre. To functionally use the plants in several aspects, first terms of presenting biodiversity, at the same time purifying the air, and producing renewable power, second as a green space creating a calming atmosphere that is hugely healing to the human mind.

 

 

Revitalising the City with Creativity

A strategic move many cities adopted to revitalise the city and its people after a long stagnation, is boosting the economy by having creative works that would become the cities’ attractions. Countries around the world got back into hosting art exhibitions again. Particularly, public art installations urge people to come out and enjoy life outside. Exhibitions are shown in large public spaces, spacious and less crowded to reduce infections risks. Like Luma Festival, a projection mapping festival, which creatively adds colours and animations onto buildings, happened with new conditions, limiting the number of audiences, with a ruling of health and safety regulations. Or wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for 16 days (18 Sep-3 Oct 2021) as a public art installation piece, a brainchild of a famous wrapped artist Christo, who had been planning the project for 60 years with his wife Jeanne-Claude. Although he had passed away in 2020, his grandson and team went forward and fulfilled his plan, sparking movements in the Paris art scene again.

 

In the near future, we believe to see many spatial designs that tackle Covid and other emerging challenges because human creativity never stops. Bangkok Design Week 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation” during 5-13 Feb 2022 will be a pinnacle for showcasing the potentiality of interesting architectural and spatial designs which is worth a visit.  

 

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