Come Back Stronger
By Cory Squire
Stasis breeds both conformity and apathy. In a predictable world, we fall into predictable patterns and forget to question the underlying assumptions that shape our behavior and determine our values. We may drive to work to spend 8, 9, or 10 hours sitting at individual desks. We may fly across the country, spending two nights in a hotel for a one-hour meeting. We may be swayed by the allure of thermal comfort or air quality in our cars, but less concerned about our homes, or accept that the proportion of urban land given over to transportation is many times the area designated for people. Our behaviors and values are influenced by both social norms and by our physical environment. The new social norms have shifted our behavior and now the Architecture profession is on the front line of designing the physical environment that comes next.
It’s up to us to fundamentally rethink our relationships with work, shelter, the public realm, and our own personal priorities. In a matter of weeks, the virus broke rules that we had accepted as fact and has led to alternative ways of being that many had not imagined. Most of what the virus has wrought is havoc, but once the risk recedes, the new normal will be inspired by the hidden gems that the virus revealed. How well we “mind the gap” between what came before and what will come after will have long term consequences.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RJ SANGOSTI — DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
Before us is a once in a generation opportunity to rebuild the world with clarity and confident action. We can allow this disruption to further weaken our community, businesses, and well-being or we can Come Back Stronger. We can refocus efforts to tackle the existing problems that the virus lay bare. We can take advantage of the new concern for public health in the built environment by pushing well-being to the forefront of architectural discourse. We can rethink of a house as a shelter and rethink the public realm as an place for human connection. The alternative to consciously designing a better future is the nightmare scenario where we permanently give up handshakes and hugs and spend the rest of our lives in a perpetual state of fear and social distancing. This is what happened after 9/11. We took faulty lessons from that tragedy and to this day, we need to stand in line to take our shoes off at the airport and walk through metal detectors in public buildings. How deeply did we consider the breadth and depth of those decisions? How much of that new normal was accepted out of fear or lack of vision? Are our lives better, are we safer?
This time, we can choose to engage in intelligent discernment. Post-COVID, we can build a world where health, community, and ecological thriving is desired outcome of the AEC industry. A world where the invisible aspects of architecture that impact our lives take new prominence in the design process. A world where we recognize the power of collective individual action and we question the true reasons behind our old paradigms.
Together we can Come Back Stronger. To help understand what that means, we invite you to share your thoughts on a simple question at the end of this article. We will harvest these answers anonymously and share what we learn. To get the mind flowing, here are some of the responses we’ve gotten from the team at Positive Energy.
Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash
Post-COVID, how do we improve the nature of work? How do we preserve the benefits that office workers received by working from home while protecting the workers who need to be on site?
Post-COVID, what does it mean for a home to be a shelter?
Post-COVID, what is the purpose of the public realm? both indoor and outdoor spaces? how does it become more human scaled and accessible?
Post-COVID, how will our personal values change?