The pandemic has astonishingly changed all aspects of our lives, from work to health to entertainment. Staying at home is the new norm. People who would spend almost the entire day out are now living in their residential spaces for the whole day.
COVID-19 has set the parameters for a mass-scale environmental experiment. While this trial is disrupting various practices, our home lives have had the most intimate effect. The pandemic has pushed us to cope with life, work, entertainment, and wellness, all under one roof. We all experienced lately that we have a different approach to the use of our private spaces, Either because a new lockdown could always be possible or just because during our first experience we realized that a more sustainable way is possible. But what will it be like post-Corona?
As we all see the significant role of houses in this situation, once the lockdown lifts, the focus will shift to how well we can structure our personal spaces to facilitate our multi-faceted lives.
Pandemic Has Changed Our Thinking about Residential Space
As a result of the excess of globalization’s culture, before the pandemic, the residential spaces had only become a place to rest at night or spend weekends. However, the epidemic has changed the course of our living. People have stayed indoors for weeks; it has forced them to acknowledge every inch of their personal space. During the lockdown, homes served the function for which they are actually made, i.e., space where you live the whole day.
The current situation allowed us to experience many things in our remote space, including playing with kids, cooking, gardening, taking online lessons of work out, and spending time with family. We have also learned to use every corner of our houses efficiently. This pandemic has helped us to know the strengths and weaknesses of our residential space and made us think about making our homes more functional.
New Approach for Home Design
A residential space should be designed to cater to the present and future needs of the clients, and that is the highlight of most of our projects. People are spending more time in their living areas and external spaces like a lawn or garden. Kitchens have also become an essential space during the lockdown as people are spending a good time in the kitchen, cooking their favourite meals to kill time.
We work on every single aspect of the design of the houses. It has been our focus to discuss the project design with our clients and ensure to maximize the spaces, which usually people do not consider like lawn and kitchen. And this, we hope, has helped our clients in this remote life.
Work-from-home is likely to become a practice, and it will be an important consideration in home designs in the future. People will be more inclined towards creating separate spaces where they can efficiently work during any time of the day.
A Shift in Open Plan Spaces Design
Will this pandemic put an end to the open-plan and outdoor spaces? Well, it will not come to an end completely.
However, the traditional structure of the open space is ultimately going to change in the coming days. These places will give you the feel of the outdoor as well as maintain your personal space.
We might see flexible partitions in these areas for creating private spaces for workout sessions or dedicated space for working from home.
Mixed Used Home Environment
A mixed-used environment in homes is not a great idea, as it’s a basic need for humans to interact with people. Also, we can’t keep ourselves into four walls for a lifetime.
However, we are learning how to mix, to alternate, to optimize. A percentage of home working might be ever possible, maybe alternated, so that the relevant percentage of commuting will be cut off consequently to the benefit of the traffic congestion and anti-pollution policies…. Much can be done from what we are learning in these days.
In addition to that, it will be a good move if we create a mixed-use environment at a larger scale, such as a town district. In this case, people will work, live, and play within the district. They will not have to spend a great amount of their time in cars or public transport.
Hence, a mixed-used environment at the district level will offer you more time for yourself and help preserve the environment.
Post- Pandemic: The House and Cities
Life after the pandemic will become quite different, as people’s thinking will see a slight shift towards privacy and security.
In the near future, tourism will experience a visible effect as the number of tourists or visitors to the city will decrease. So, you will see more citizens in town and fewer or no tourists.
People will acknowledge their houses more than ever before. They will find the residential spaces more comfortable that will be no more anonymous to them. People will also focus on the structure and design of the house to make it a more personal space where they can spend most of their time.