At the end of 2020, the World Architecture Festival was held in a new, previously unusual format. WAF Virtuals, an online platform, brought together architects and designers from around the world to discuss how the pandemic will and has already changed our cities and homes. Magda Kmita, partner of the architectural bureau Blank Architects, highlighted 5 main trends of the festival that we will take with us into 2021.
1. New life for empty spaces
A trend that is logically observed around the world is the release of public areas intended for communication, networking or entertainment. In Singapore, for example, the pandemic has led to a reduction in the flow of people and cars in the urban environment, which has led to a sharp improvement in the quality of air, fauna and flora of the agglomeration. People liked it – and thus a trend appeared in urban planning to maintain biodiversity in cities. This means more attention to parks and recreation areas and the creation of green spaces. What’s also important is that remote work has freed up our offices, and therefore our infrastructure. What can we do with the prestigious business centers and surrounding restaurants and shops? Under the new conditions, the empty meters will be available to creative businesses for which such solutions were previously unavailable due to high costs.
2. Healthy Building and mentally healthy architecture
The topic of healthy building or healthy architecture itself has been of interest to architects for several years. Buildings and spaces with their appearance can and are already actively influencing the social, physical and even mental health of people. What approaches can be used to design buildings conducive to physical activity? As part of the WAF, architects shared their own experiences. For example, elevators in common areas are hidden from view: all the user’s attention is focused on flights of stairs as the main means of transportation. The stairs themselves, at the same time, can also be places for meetings and relaxation: new functionality can be added due to the width and length of the steps: such a solution, for example, was implemented at the headquarters of Booking.com in Amsterdam. Places for casual and planned meetings on the stairs, the oversaturation of space with natural light due to panoramic glazing and atriums, the abundance of greenery – all this allows a person to feel not alone and provokes communication due to the correct modeling of the flows of different groups of users. In light of the pandemic, health care is also becoming relevant: experience has been adopted from hospitals. To ensure that air does not mix, and ventilation and air conditioning do not become carriers of bacteria, air in public buildings can be directed vertically rather than horizontally. Such a system in hospitals, according to the experience of the Dutch bureau Un Studio, has already reduced the risk of respiratory diseases among medical staff by 20%. an abundance of greenery – all this allows a person to feel not alone and provokes communication due to the correct modeling of the flows of different groups of users. In light of the pandemic, health care is also becoming relevant: experience has been adopted from hospitals. To ensure that air does not mix, and ventilation and air conditioning do not become carriers of bacteria, air in public buildings can be directed vertically rather than horizontally. Such a system in hospitals, according to the experience of the Dutch bureau Un Studio, has already reduced the risk of respiratory diseases among medical staff by 20%. an abundance of greenery – all this allows a person to feel not alone and provokes communication due to the correct modeling of the flows of different groups of users. In light of the pandemic, health care is also becoming relevant: experience has been adopted from hospitals. To ensure that air does not mix, and ventilation and air conditioning do not become carriers of bacteria, air in public buildings can be directed vertically rather than horizontally. Such a system in hospitals, according to the experience of the Dutch bureau Un Studio, has already reduced the risk of respiratory diseases among medical staff by 20%. not horizontal. Such a system in hospitals, according to the experience of the Dutch bureau Un Studio, has already reduced the risk of respiratory diseases among medical staff by 20%. not horizontal. Such a system in hospitals, according to the experience of the Dutch bureau Un Studio, has already reduced the risk of respiratory diseases among medical staff by 20%.
3. Home for work
The flip side of current trends is the need to create mini-offices at home, where we actually work most of the time today. Today, solutions for this have already been invented for both apartments and residential complexes. Home offices can be set up using mobile soundproof booths or workstations in dedicated niches for desks or on glazed balconies. In residential complexes, a number of developers have already organized coworking spaces in common areas or outdoor workspaces: wi-fi coverage is appearing in parks and squares adjacent to residential complexes, and charging units are being built into benches. Such proposals are a direct response to changing lifestyles around the world. But who compensates users for these costs? For now this question remains open. World experience was discussed at WAF Virtuals: perhaps in the near future, compensation solutions will be developed, primarily for employees of large corporations, and even standards for organizing a home workplace will appear. In the meantime, the corner of the bedroom or living room for work is already beginning to transform into separate rooms for small offices: always with a window that you can look out of to get distracted, and with a comfortable ergonomic chair, which in this case works in tandem with soft lighting. Hotels and serviced apartments are pioneering the trend: operators around the world, from Hilton to more affordable brands, are offering empty hotels for rent during business hours. Compact studio rooms, designed for one person, include a bedroom, bathroom, space for work and relaxation. The first such proposals appeared in Copenhagen.
4. Avoiding the cold
In the design of apartments and apartments, obvious outsiders of the near future were also noted – bulky forms and cold textures. Marble, massive solutions for furniture and natural stone finishing are no longer relevant. It is much more important to build the interior on the harmony of various geometric shapes and non-obvious color combinations. Pantone’s colors of the year are yellow and gray. The first symbolizes hope, the second – stability. Mixes of such shades, however, in their pure form are more relevant for restaurants, and in the home interior it is recommended to select variations of muted, soft tones. To correctly assess the vector of choice in design, today it is enough to look at the catwalk collections: everything that we see in clothes today is quickly transformed into concepts for interior solutions.
5. Bring art into life
Due to the pandemic, art has become difficult for people to access – that which inspires, energizes and develops. Indoor museums and cultural centers around the world have moved online, but this is still not enough. There is a growing trend among high-net-worth individuals around the world to purchase art objects, both as investment assets and for interior decoration. Sculptures and object design, photographs are the most relevant solutions that allow you to bring a bohemian mood to your home without turning it into an exhibition center. The coolest and most unexpected should be left to hotels such as At Six in Stockholm, where art is part of the design concept for common areas. In your own apartment, it is enough to limit yourself to a few small objects of bright colors to create accents, but not to create the feeling of a museum exhibition.