Design in Covid-19

As architects and designers, we believe it is within our charge to help protect the public health, safety, and welfare.

While we constantly update our practice in response to innovations and evolutions, COVID-19 is expediting the need to explore real-life implications set in motion by the current state of affairs. Therefore, Design Collective’s architects, urban designers, landscape architects, interior architects, and graphic designers have been collecting information to help our work become more informed, poignant, and timely across our entire practice. We’ve realized each sector is responding and will respond to the pandemic differently, as this unprecedented shift in mentality and action is forcing everyone to question how they live, learn, work, and play.

Over the next four weeks, we will spotlight each of these focus areas, summarizing the potential design ramifications brought to our attention by news articles and emails in our inbox. We will explore how these revelations and present uncertainties are shifting the way we think about our projects and execute our work. It is crucial to note that the goal of our research and narrative is not to present conclusions, nor will it take the approach of disaster response. Instead, we aim to share how this change is quietly defining a new normal and how as architects and designers we are putting these lessons into practice in ways that are sustainable, perpetuating health, wellness, and trust.

Four installations will highlight our areas of focus:

Work – the study of workplace and collaboration, how office plans and the nature of workplace culture is being impacted
Play – how social distancing is impacting public spaces, outdoor recreation design, and other areas for gathering
Live –exploring how the multifamily and mixed-use landscape may shift, especially after many of us have been ‘stuck’ inside for such a long time
Learn – a two-part installment on education, from K-12 classrooms and online learning to higher education and student housing.

Our pieces will be released on Thursdays beginning next week. We welcome you to join our conversation, challenge us, and contribute. While we believe it is too early to definitively state how anything might change immediately or permanently, we don’t feel it is premature to think critically, integrate current concerns into our tasks at hand, and remain at the forefront of service through design.

We look forward to sharing. Stay tuned.

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