Achieve positive, lasting change
By Jane Frederick, FAIA
"In our schools, office buildings, public spaces, and communities, people need and deserve spaces that are healthy, equitable, and safe."
From the heroic efforts of front-line health workers to the more mundane contributions of average Americans staying home, everyone has a role to play in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just as it always has when crisis strikes, the architecture profession mobilized immediately to do our part — demonstrating every day what it means to be a citizen architect.
From the early days of the crisis, firms contributed resources and 3D-printing technology to produce protective masks. And special task forces took action to coordinate with public officials. The Rapid Response Safety Space Assessment Task Force has been working to refine best practices for identifying and converting existing buildings into temporary health facilities.
Closely related is the Implementation and Community Outreach Task Force, which supports components’ efforts to mobilize local architects, implement recommendations of the Temporary Facilities Task Force, and identify community response and recovery efforts.
These efforts have been so effective that an alternate care site checklist produced by the AIA’s task force is now being distributed internationally by the United States Department of State, which translated the tool into three languages.
While we continue this critical work to support the immediate medical response, we’re also looking ahead, applying the same health and safety principles toward eventually transitioning out of quarantine and back into offices, stores, restaurants, and schools.
To that end, the AIA is convening virtual design charrettes with experts from the public health, engineering, and facilities management fields to develop solutions to safely reopen our buildings and plan for the future — including ensuring apartments and other housing are safer places to live.
Supporting this essential work also means supporting the architecture community itself, and the AIA is committed to helping our community navigate these uncertain times. A third group — the COVID-19 Business Task Force — was formed for just that purpose, and it’s been working to identify challenges and find solutions to the economic disruption we’re all experiencing.
A number of economic information resources and ongoing free webinars are continually updated on the “COVID-19 resources for architects” page on the AIA’s website.
Many of those resources are geared specifically toward supporting emerging professionals — including free expert résumé review through the AIA Career Center. Our Career Center is also offering employers discounts on job postings to help ensure we collect the widest range of job opportunity information.
There’s no doubt COVID-19 will leave its mark on building practices. From spatial planning to materials to how we construct spaces — it could all be different. And at this pivotal moment, it’s as critical as ever that the architecture community supports young architects.
As we work together to confront these challenges, we’re not starting from scratch. Many of the design principles that support healthier, more equitable spaces are the same ones we’ve been focused on for decades, hand in hand with resilience and sustainability strategies to address other shocks and stresses, including climate change.
In our schools, office buildings, public spaces, and communities, people need and deserve spaces that are healthy, equitable, and safe. We’ve seen growing public recognition of that truth, and now it’s gained new urgency.
Architects have a rare opportunity to achieve positive, lasting change out of this tragedy. And, with all our skills and perspectives, we’re uniquely positioned to provide meaningful solutions that could protect people.
Author Bio:
Jane Frederick, FAIA
Frederick is principal of Beaufort, S.C. based Frederick + Frederick Architects, an award-winning firm specializing in custom residences. Frederick is the 2020 AIA President.