Unilever’s North American Headquarters in New Jersey
As the COVID-19 crisis impacts New York City and beyond, there remains many questions and uncertainties. How long will social distancing need to be practiced? When and will there be a vaccine created? What new or accelerated work behaviors will continue for the long-term? While the answers to these questions are slow to emerge, one thing is clear: the world we step into post-pandemic will be irrevocably different with new practices and behaviors that will influence the way we live and the way we work.
Prior to the current pandemic, the New York studio of architecture and design firm Perkins and Will was planning its own move into a new office space in the NoMAD neighborhood in Manhattan. With the move still pending, and an ever-evolving pandemic as the backdrop, Interior Design Director Brent Capron and Firmwide Healthcare Interiors Design Director Carolyn BaRossconnected to discuss convergence in architecture, lessons learned, and what the world may look like on the other side.
Brent: Outside of our homes, we typically spend most of our time at work. Workplace interior design trends have embraced different typologies in recent years, with greater integration of hospitality and residential design principals that create vibrant live/work/play destinations for employees. As we find ourselves amid one of the worst global health crises in recent memory, the architecture and design industry must start looking how this type of convergence will shift for the both the short and long-term. When the world’s workforce finally returns to the office, it is inevitable we will have to adjust our lens on workplace design. We will need to start looking at offices from a public health perspective.
Carolyn: Designers need to revaluate offices and all our environment through the lens of public health. We can only begin to imagine the way the world may look on the other side of this pandemic. Just as other types of crisis have driven operational, architectural change, this one will force us all to evaluate everything we do, how we design and build, and reimagine these places for solutions that restore our health and sense of safety and actual safety. They are complex problems, and I can see the design teams of the future including scientists, infection control experts, and much more integration with engineers to inform spatial configuration and how engineering systems integrate with our projects to ensure occupant safety.
Short term, it is going to change our perception of virtual work too – when and where we work individually and together. So much of what we do can be created through shared technological platforms and virtual meetings. Seemingly overnight, there is acceptance of this virtual workplace, of people working from home if their home settings support their ability to work. Yet, the sense of community, the intangible benefits of being together cannot be underestimated, and we can take scientifically proven strategies from healthcare and apply them universally across office spaces, retail, cultural and sports venues to enhance safety, and alleviate the fear of returning to group settings. We understand that many companies recognize that being present is part of creating connections lead to the building of brand, culture, and identity.