Pandemic Gives Architects New Challenges in Designing for Health Concerns
Architects consider cost, design aesthetics, materials, uses and a host of other factors when planning new spaces, but now the COVID-19 pandemic is making occupant health another factor to consider.
Designing in the context of current events and lifestyle changes is nothing new for architects, whether they're arranging a lobby with touchscreen kiosks, installing electric car chargers in a parking lot or implementing security booths in front of high-profile offices. But such trends see gradual demand, unlike the pandemic which caused an urgent need for architects to change existing and proposed buildings, sometimes at the sacrifice of normal priorities, explained NJIT's Maria Hurtado de Mendoza, associate professor in Hillier College of Architecture and Design.
The trend goes for ordinary spaces like restaurants to healthcare-specific spaces such as hospitals. Specifically, "I think there's going to be a lot to write about the new way of using architecture in outdoor spaces and in-between spaces," said Hurtado de Mendoza, who authored a 2017 book, Clinical, an architecture of variation with repetition, about her Madrid-based firm's work for three healthcare facilities.
"That book is about architectural design in the broad sense of what the process is from conceptual thinking to the physicality of the built environment," she noted. The three buildings have the same basic design but are not exact replicas, due to each facility's unique needs. Different materials in each building change its perception, she said.
Hurtado de Mendoza gave several examples of health-driven design. In hospitals, architects could place children's spaces away from vulnerable patients and maternity wards to avoid infections. Waiting rooms could be designed more like workplaces to help patients avoid feeling like victims. Shipping containers, such as the ones composing NJIT's rapid COVID testing facility, can be acquired for first aid or triage locations. In stores and restaurants, she expects that convertible indoor-outdoor spaces and winter gardens could become a long-term trend even after the pandemic dissipates. Single dormitory rooms may become more popular, such as those planned for the new NJIT residence hall.
University Hospital, located just over a mile from NJIT, faced these issues in real-time when the pandemic exploded around the springtime. William Schneck, a facilities director, emphasized his team's urgent changes to ventilation systems — an unloved yet important part of an architect's work. The hospital engineering staff made architectural changes converting rooms with positive air pressure, where air is vented out, into negative ones, where air is pushed in, to reduce the risk of spreading COVID or infecting existing COVID patients with otherwise harmless germs. Some hospitals have variable systems where the air pressure can be switched on demand, but the University Hospital building is 50 years old and it would be too complicated and expensive to install that, he said.
Sometimes people think that architecture is just a building where you do something. For us, architecture is something more. It's how you live, how you move.
Chief Operating Officer Eve Borzon added that hospital staff also increased the number of antechambers where staff could don and remove personal protective equipment. "The clinical goes arm-in-arm with the architectural in healthcare," she noted. Details such as selecting materials for upholstery, ceilings, floors and walls that stand up to intense cleaning products are also examples of architectural and interior design concerns that can easily be overlooked, she said.
The hospital as of December 2020 is seeing a few dozen new cases of COVID daily, compared to a peak of 259 at the spring surge, so the current coronavirus wave hasn't overwhelmed the engineering and planning staff members, Schneck said.
Back at NJIT, although currently teaching remotely from Spain, Hurtado de Mendoza said architects can still look for ways to include aesthetics during a pandemic. The simple use of natural light goes a long way to bring illumination and contentment into what might be a dreary situation. Natural light also saves energy. "When you're in a clinic, the relationship with the outside is very important, it's critical," she said.
"Sometimes people think that architecture is just a building where you do something," Hurtado de Mendoza added. "For us, architecture is something more. It's how you live, how you move."
