In Europe and the US the discussion about the virus and its epidemiological aspects has turned into a debate about "reopening the country". As usual, the country is split. But this isn't the topic of this article. Rather, here we will talk about the many practical aspects of what reopening would mean for the built environment:
Ever thought about what it will take to reopen a business after the lock-down when social distancing is still in place? What if the business is an office located on the 20th floor of a 30 story office tower?
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| Waiting for the workers to return. 6' feet apart, but don't move |
From the parking garage to the lobby, the elevator all the way to the office cubicles, the lunch room and the copy machine, nothing is set up for the 6' distance we all are supposed to keep.
With many US States moving rapidly towards allowing schools and businesses to reopen, not only offices but factories, shops, restaurants, schools, universities are scrambling to figure out what exactly to put in place before work can begin again.
For the reopening the US should learn from other countries who go through the same waves as we in the US but a few weeks ahead of us. China's reopening is combined with strict rules, many of those are probably unacceptable to us. Hardly a restaurant, building or transit system there can be entered without displaying a clean bill of health OCR code displayed on a cell phone, this often combined with contact free temperature checks. There, it has become normal that everyone wears a surgical mask.
While architecture and cities have always been influenced by pandemics and public health
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READ ALLArchplan Inc. Philipsen Architects