Life After Covid-19 Will Changes Home Designs

Lessons Learned Can Change Home Designs

Home designs are going to be changed forever. Social distancing has made Americans stay in their homes and mostly out of places they habitually gather in order to decrease the spread of COVID-19. Although some buildings, like grocery stores and hospitals, have to stay open. Though some buildings have to remain open, and most of us will end up going back to the workplace or office.

What is the purpose of building design in disease spread, and can we change how we design the constructed environment to make it healthier?

One of the suggestions for healthy buildings: opening blinds to get natural daylight and opening windows to improve air circulation.

While more research is required on the effect of sunlight on SARS-CoV-2 inside, daylight exists as a free, widely accessible source for home or building tenants with the minimal downside to its usage and lots of documented positive human health benefits.

We spend almost all of our lives within human-built surroundings, whether homes, offices, or vehicles. Built environments provide a lot of opportunities for individuals to come into contact with bacteria and viruses — through airflow, from surfaces, and from the way buildings make us interact with one another.

So far, the only route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is directly from person to person. But viruses settle on surfaces, which may become contaminated. How long SARS-CoV-2 remains on surfaces is up for debate. Estimates range from a few hours to a few days, depending on conditions and the substance. Regular handwashing and cleaning surfaces are crucial to reducing the spread of a virus.

Air Humidity and Flow

Viral particles are too tiny to be blocked by MERV and HEPA air filters. However, ventilation methods can still play a role in lessening disease transmission, the authors write. Raising the volume of air circulating in from outside and the speed of air exchange can reduce virus particles indoors. This may include”perimeter venting” — opening a window when outside temperatures allow it. Although, high airflow could also accelerate settled particles and put them back in the air — and it also takes more energy.

Virus shreds such as drier air, maintaining a relative humidity can help. Droplets that contain virus get the larger in humid air, meaning that settle out more quickly and don’t travel as far. Humidity appears to intervene with the lipid covering around viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. However, too much humidity can promote mold growth.

Modern buildings are usually designed to promote social mixing — from open living plan areas in houses to open offices where space is shared by multiple employees. Encouraging interaction and chance encounters, these home designs considered to create more creativity and teamwork. At the same time, they are apparently also really great for spreading viruses around.

Houses Instead of Apartments

High-rise buildings were created to organize as many individuals as possible in one place. Hygiene and health were not a consideration. In situations of the pandemic, it’s essential to decrease contact with everything that’s used in multi-story buildings, elevators, lift buttons, door handles, surfaces, and, most importantly, neighbors.

After forcing self-isolation on floors above the ground, often without a terrace or a balcony, will all desperately want to have a house. It can be simple, but with a terrace and a courtyard where you can have tea in the morning.

Throughout time, the house’s primary role has been security. Initially, it served as a hiding place from bad weather and predatory animals. Then rock fortresses were built to avoid the enemy from getting in. People require a house that could effectively provide isolation today.

Over an escape from urban chaos and routine, the home now offers a retreat from infections and viruses. Urbanization takes a step back as we relocate to city suburbs and small villages.

Bunkers Better Than Open-Plan

For survivalists — people constantly training to endure a coming Apocalypse — there was already a trend for fortified buildings. However, now we can expect that trend to become more popular.

Looking at our real experience, films based on the end of the world no longer seem to be so amazing. The urge to prepare your house for man-made or natural hazards is no longer surprising. There’ll not just be a garage close to the home, but also a hopper, or at least a covered “minus” floor with a pantry for water and food.

We will also be saying goodbye to one of the main home designs of these years’ open-plan areas, with living areas, the entry, dining space, and kitchen combined. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the entry area will be separated so that we can leave our shoes, clothes, and possessions on the street, rather than carry dirt into the living quarters.

Self-Sufficient Power And Water

The buildings of the future will be independent and proud, with their own heating and water supply. Wells are currently gaining popularity. Besides water, they can somewhat provide a home with heating.

There’ll be several other sources of heating to have as a safety net: solar panels, a stove, a fireplace, a solid fuel generator. Autonomous mini-stations producing alternative power will become a reality. The aim will be independence from the outside world, minimizing risks in the event of a full shutdown.

Satellite internet is an inconvenient and expensive service, accessible only to certain people and organizations, such as mining, maritime transport, and construction firms, and military organizations. In the coming time, developments for civilian use will be driven, offering us rapid access to the internet.

SpaceX and OneWeb were already planning to cover the world with this technology before the pandemic started. OneWeb has already deployed 40 of a projected 648 satellites in the planet’s orbit, while SpaceX’s Starlink project envisions the launch of 12,000 satellites into low orbit by the mid-2020s.

Filtration and Neutralisation

Air and water filtration systems tend to be seen as an unnecessary addition abandoned in favor of a designer table. When the pandemic, the trend will change, as people worry about what might happen if a virus gets into the water supply. To be sure, people will be happy to pay for the excavation, filtration systems, and surveys needed to install a well.

Smart home systems manufacturers will go one step further. Their programs won’t only control the air temperature in the house, but also it’s quality and, if required, they will automatically clean it. Air from the outside will obviously be filtered.

Especially demanding families may also build a cleaning room emphasizing antiseptic dispensers. Going through this space is the only way to the home for guests or deliveries. Homes are also equipped with a lamp that produces ultraviolet radiation, which may kill some harmful germs, viruses, and organisms.

House As The New Office

During quarantine, most are made to work at home. There’ll be people who will, on the first day after the quarantine, run to meet colleagues and drink that office coffee. Although there will be those who will not want to return to the office.

The focus on new home designs will be given to the arrangement of the office at home. The spatial organization will change, with the place to work at home, no longer a table with a parody of an office chair slotted somewhere under the stairs or in the corner of the living room. Now it will be an entirely separate room with big windows, comfortable furniture and blackout curtains. It will be sound-insulated and technically equipped.

Offices will make an effort to win us back. Everything that the top firms have will become commonplace.

Urban Farming Goes Global

It used to be in trend to start small gardens, or on balconies, it’ll be a boom. Gardening is calming. It is shown that physical interaction with living plants is good for our mental health.

Growing what you consume is pleasant and gives you some independence from your daily routine during self-isolation. Quarantine might be the best time to get to know more about indoor gardens – how to grow plants from seeds and produce a food ration, even if you live in a multi-story building. In addition to growing food, indoor gardens can give oxygen. The trend in photo walls has existed for many years. Still, we have not explored the full potential it puts for interior design.

Going deeper is also a choice, like in the new Guy Ritchie film Gentlemen, where marijuana is grown in underground farms. You can develop an underground cellar with a garden, mini cheese factory, or a winery. Needless to say, you need extra gear here: artificial water, lighting, and air filtration, soil fertilizers. But it would be well worth it for fresh tomatoes.

Rejection of Mass Industry

People around the world were struck by photos revealing a new sky over China. After two weeks of abandonment of mass production, they could finally inhale fresh air.

There are lots of more pleasant revelations. The world will be about things that matter. There’ll be fewer objects, and they’ll be chosen more carefully. Questions will be asked: Why are they made of organic materials? Does their production harm the planet?

Additionally, authorities will have to keep local manufacturers to restore economic performance. Once you leave import and export, you will no longer be such frivolous cosmopolitans.

Wash your hands, stay at home, and let us make a new worthy life with better home designs that the world will no longer want to give up. We’re in this together!

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