Built Environment and COVID-19 Recovery: Changes, Barriers and Opportunities for the Architectural Industry

This essay evaluates the potential changes, barriers and opportunities for the architectural industry during COVID-19 recovery. It discusses the impact of the pandemic on the AEC industry and the ways in which the built environment can quickly recover from damages caused by COVID-19.

Work ethics
and
professionalism

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The building and architecture industry in UK is facing changes because of the impact of the
pandemic and decisions taken by the UK government to restrict rise in temperature from the
Paris agreement. The topic of this essay is Built environment and COVID-19 recovery. The ways
in which the built environment can quickly recover from damages caused by COVID-19. The
objective of this essay is to identify the potential changes, barriers and opportunities for the
architectural, engineering and construction industry with specific focus on the architectural
industry. This will be accomplished by providing critical evaluation of various changes
introduced by COVID-19 in the AEC industry and using relevant sources to conduct literature
review.
MAIN BODY
The architecture, engineering and construction industry provides services related to
architectural design, engineering design and construction services. The disciplines which are part
of the AEC industry play an important role in urban planning and building urban spaces for
social development. The built environment is defined as human made spaces which act as place
for completing human activities such as streets, buildings, zoning, transportation, green spaces
and many more (Agrawal and et. al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertain
situation for the architecture, engineering and construction industry. This is because the demand
for residential and non-residential construction has decreased. One of the primary changes
introduced by COVID-19 in the architecture, engineering and construction industry is the
increased emphasis on safety of employees. This can be seen in the considerations to avoid
bringing out of city staff for construction projects and reduction of number of people present in
construction sites because of mandated pandemic safety requirements.
During the recovery period from COVID-19 pandemic interest in scanners and spatial
data capture solutions will increase in order to enhance the safety of employees in case of on-site
construction projects. In case of the architecture field, adoption of remote working along with
adoption of 4-D design and construction solutions, cloud and internet of things will continue
during the recovery period to ensure the COVID-19 variants do not spread (Aman and et. al.,
2021). The positive impact of focusing on creating a safe working environment and continues
adoption of remote working technology is that it will support digitization of Architecture,
engineering and construction industry. The improvement in digital capabilities of the
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construction industry is highly beneficial as it will enhance safety, productivity, efficiency and
collaboration, higher profit margins and reduced costs. The negative impact of this change
introduced by the Covid-19 in the construction sector is that increased dependence on digital
technology also introduces the threat of cyber-attacks and privacy issues.
The built environment and the ways in which people interact with the environment changes
in an ad hoc manner following the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crises also introduced a
design problem as individuals become hyperaware of their movement and position in relation to
the built environment. As a result, every individual becomes a non-compliant body, which means
that they were at variance to the built environment (Anderson and et. al., 2020). This introduces
the challenge for designing urban public spaces for social distancing which is more hospitable
for non-compliant bodies. The is a challenge for the architecture sector because social distancing
as a concept is not limited to people standing still in a space at a dotted line in the grocery store
but a more dynamic situation. This challenge of designating built environment which promote
social distancing needs to be resolved in order to move further with the recovery from COVID-
19. The pandemic is making everyone aware of the ways in which design of the built
environment dictates individual experiences and daily interactions.
Recovery from COVID-19 provides an opportunity for architectural development similar to
progress in modernist architecture because of tuberculosis in the 20th century. In context of
architecture of domestic spaces pandemic has created anxiety because individuals have to
confine in domestic space for long time period for safety. During recovery from COVID-19,
domestic spaces designs will be updated to reflect this anxiety with the separation of kitchen,
dining room and living rooms (Eisenstadt and et. al., 2020). In addition to this, domestic
schematics will focus on building better acoustic workspaces and more desk square footage. The
positive impact of this opportunity is that it will influence architecture and design towards
minimal but adequate but independent, habitable spaces. This is positive consequence as it will
help design domestic spaces which act as a textured hideaway and provide individuals ability to
stay in for a long time period.
According to Faris, (2021) Urbanism is a useful tool which will support increase in sustainability
and help face climate change. The UK government is focusing on reaching net zero carbon
emissions and reduce rise in temperature after the Paris agreement. COVID-19 has introduced
the challenge of reducing carbon emission as it has increased the use of work from home
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environment. Remote working popularity will lead to rise in carbon emissions and arm
sustainable initiatives in relation to the architecture engineering and construction sector.
Ensuring net zero carbon emission involves carbon removal which includes taking carbon out of
the atmosphere rather than taking the conventional approach which centres around paying
someone else not to emit carbon into the atmosphere (Urbanism "is one of the best tools we
have" in the fight against climate change, 2021). The current built environment is highly carbon
intensive space which provides possibility of down streaming heavy carbon emission to enhance
sustainability of buildings and urban spaces. The positive impact of this opportunity is that it will
shift the focus of urban planning towards creating buildings with low carbon emission to enhance
sustainability of urbanization. This shift also has a negative impact as it will reduce
suburbanization which supports economic development of an Urban area.
As per the views of Booth (2021) the reason behind high carbon footprint of the UK
construction industry is the throwaway building culture which involves demolishing old
buildings instead of making effort for retrofitting the buildings. In the light of the COIVID-19
pandemic this is one of the main challenge which negatively affects improvement in
sustainability of the construction industry. It is the time to rethink on the concept of building
bulldozing to cultivate an environment which avoids wasting embodied carbon through tearing
down buildings (Developers challenged over carbon footprint of new buildings in UK, 2021).
This will have positive impact on the net zero targets of the UK government and will support
creation of sustainable built environment. The positive impact of changing construction culture
from bulldozing to retrofitting is that it will ensure optimal utilization of existing construction
resources and support allotment of construction resources on building new projects for
expanding urbanization.
Retrofitting supports increase the life o a specific building thereby lowering the costs related
to upkeep of public urban areas. In this way the UK government will be able to enhance
construction sustainability and lower public expenses by building long standing projects (Fezi,
2020). The positive impact of selecting retrofitting of demolishing buildings is that it more
economical method of improving city infrastructure or dealing with private property. The
pandemic will increase suburbanization as more and more individuals begin to work from home
which can also be avoided through retrofitting. This is because retrofitting creates more stable
Urban spaces and build environment supporting remote working. In this way the negative
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environmental impact of pandemic from a construction perspective can also be reduces with the
help of retrofitting.
On the other hand, retrofitting also has negative impact on sustainability and built
environment. The main negative impact of retrofitting is that it can damage heritage sites and
historical locations. Construction in heritage its requires high expertise as such locations are an
important part of the built environment in any urban area. The UK government needs to avoid
usage of retrofitting in case of historical buildings or heritage locations to preserve the historical
significance of the region (Hassan and et. al., 2021). Another limitation of retrofitting is that it
requires expert analysis in order to gain desired results. Since the COVID-19 pandemic the focus
of retrofitting need to be buildings in the populated urban areas to in order to reduce
suburbanization from such regions. This requires help from experts and will increase public
financial resources needed for retrofitting. This is the primary negative aspect associated with
use of retrofitting instead of demolishing buildings.
Looking at the negative and positive aspects of retrofitting it can be understood that
encouraging retrofitting instead of bulldozing can be highly beneficial for metropolitan areas in
UK. This construction concept is advantageous to handle the negative environmental impact of
COVID-19 and will support sustainable development of Urban areas and the overall construction
sector of UK. The negative aspects of retrofitting is minimal because it is limited to the high
financial resources needed for implementing retrofitting in construction of public spaces
successfully.
According to Wainwright (2020), the designating landscape is changing to create
architectural designs which reduce spread of future pandemic. In the wake of COVID-19
pandemic the design of public spaces has shifted its focus to improving the hygiene related
elements of the company. The main changes will be wider corridors and doorways. More
partitions between departments and increase in staircases (Ladi and Wolff, 2021). Open space
flooring will be discarded in favour of introducing barriers between individuals and spaces which
flow into each other will be opted less. In addition to this the focus of developers will be on
creating buildings which automatically enable social distancing and limits spread of any kinds of
virus or other pathogens by limiting physical touch.
The focus of design and engineering to create buildings which lower physical interaction
between individuals and services provides an opportunity to use digital technology for creating
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built environment of the future. Development of contactless pathways in skyscrapers is a recent
innovation which can be seen as a direct response to the demand of reduced physical touch
created by the pandemic. Contactless pathways refer to design layouts in which individuals
rarely have to touch surfaces for entry and exit. Lifts can be called by using smartphones which
eliminates the requirement of pressing button from inside or outside the lift (Laguarta, Hueto and
Subirana, 2020). Automatic doors which utilize motion sensors and facial recognition will also
support creation of contactless pathways. In addition to this, motion sensors can also be deployed
in the lavatories so that they remain touch free and safe for everyone to use.
This opportunity to utilize intern of things, advanced technology and digital technology to
create architectural designs and engineering which increases containment of pathogens will be
seen in the recent future during recovery of pandemic. This is because more developers will
focus on creating infrastructure and buildings which support automatic hygiene and enforce
pandemic mandates such as social distancing, reduction in physical interaction ort touch with
surfaces or individuals. Exploitation of this opportunity will create digital built environment in
economical developed urban areas which uses advanced technology for virus protection. The
statistical data which supports popularization of hands free architectural designs is that 80% of
diseases are transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces.
The positive impact of this change in the built environment will be that it will also supports
creation of more sustainable built environment. The reason for this is that as most daily activities
will be conducted through smartphones which will increase labour efficiency and save energy. In
this way moving forward with the opportunity provided by digital technologies to create touch
free built environment will also support reaching net zero emissions. The negative impact of this
building such urban spaces giving the control of lifts and other public use systems to digital
technology and networks introduces the risk of hackers attacking such networks to cause social
damage. It is important for developers and governments to ensure digital protection of buildings
and architectural designs which are dependent on digital technology for functioning.
Recovery from COVID-19 will impact city skylines and change the built environment of
current Urban areas. This is because high rise buildings will become more expensive to build and
less efficient (Magesh and et. al., 2020). This will lower the inclination of developers and
builders to build tall skyscrapers due to the lack of economic incentives. The positive impact of
this change is that it will rid urban spaces form ever expanding skyscrapers which isolate
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individuals. The negative aspect of skyscrapers in context of the structural vulnerabilities present
in such buildings will also be eliminated with the help of changes bought by the pandemic.
As investment in building tall structures and skyscrapers will be reduced it will also
negatively impact the built environment of metropolitan cities. The lower investment in
skyscrapers will be shifted towards investment in development of suburban areas.
Suburbanization is very harmful to environment and also promotes inequality in Urban areas. In
addition to this, tall buildings introduce more space into city centres, which reduces urban sprawl
and helps preservation of natural areas in the city and outskirts of the city which is under threat
of Urbanization. The reduction in investment of tall buildings and skyscrapers will lower this
type of behaviour in Urban areas and contribute to environmental harm and natural landscape
reduction (Wang, Liu and Dou, 2020).
COVID-19 has also introduced a social divide between cities and towns as the spread of
COVID-19 in different parts of the world is being blamed on city dwellers and towns people.
This social issue is related to built environment and sustainability as it is related to the debate
about density in cities and its impact on spread of pathogens. The arguments surrounding this
issue are related to personal choice which ignores the impact of built environment on personal
choices. Currently it is clear that some of the densest cities have been able to face the negative
impact of pandemic efefcfitvelly (Smart lifts, lonely workers, no towers or tourists: architecture
after coronavirus, 2020). This will increase the support for car centric urban planning and
reducing density of Urban areas in order to lower spread of the pandemic. The positive impact of
this challenge is that it will lead to action against overcrowded spaces and buildings in cities
which are close to unliveable. The negative impact of this social impact of COVID-19 is that car
centric built environment will have harmful influence on sustainability. In addition to this
architectural design will also change to facilitate overcrowding in public spaces which tend to be
anti-poor. In this way the CVID-19 has changed views, technology usage and economy
associated with built environment, construction and architecture which will have both positive
and negative impacts.
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CONCLUSION
From the above essay it is determined that COVID-19 has introduced some challenges and
opportunities in context of the construction, engineering and architecture industry. There will be
increased focus on creating spaces which promote touch free environment in both domestic and
office level. In addition to this, digital technologies will be used to enhance contactless
environment in buildings and public spaces. These factors both positively and negatively impact
productivity. Investment in skyscrapers will decrease while focus on reducing density of cities
will be reduced. These are the primary changes which will affect built environment significantly
and sustainability of the AEC industry significantly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agrawal and et. al., 2020. ‘EMERGE’: Construction of a simple quality appraisal tool for rapid
review of laparoscopic surgery guidelines during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of
British Surgery, 107(11). pp.e518-e519.
Aman and et. al., 2021. IoMT amid COVID-19 pandemic: Application, architecture, technology,
and security. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 174. p.102886.
Anderson and et. al., 2020. Nursing home design and COVID-19: balancing infection control,
quality of life, and resilience. Journal of the American Medical Directors
Association, 21(11). pp.1519-1524.
Eisenstadt and et. al., 2020. COVID-19 antibody test/vaccination certification: there's an app for
that. IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 1. pp.148-155.
Fezi, B.A., 2020. Health engaged architecture in the context of COVID-19. Journal of Green
Building, 15(2), pp.185-212.
Hassan and et. al., 2021. Notable sequence homology of the ORF10 protein introspects the
architecture of SARS-COV-2. International Journal of Biological
Macromolecules, 181. pp.801-809.
Ladi, S. and Wolff, S., 2021. The EU Institutional Architecture in the Covid-19 Response:
Coordinative Europeanization in Times of Permanent Emergency. Journal of Common
Market Studies.
Laguarta, J., Hueto, F. and Subirana, B., 2020. COVID-19 artificial intelligence diagnosis using
only cough recordings. IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 1.
pp.275-281.
Magesh and et. al., 2020. Pervasive computing in the context of COVID-19 prediction with AI-
based algorithms. International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications.
Wang, Z., Liu, Q. and Dou, Q., 2020. Contrastive cross-site learning with redesigned net for
covid-19 ct classification. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 24(10).
pp.2806-2813.
Online
Developers challenged over carbon footprint of new buildings in UK, 2021. [Online] Available
through https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/28/developers-challenged-
over-carbon-footprint-of-new-buildings-in-uk
Smart lifts, lonely workers, no towers or tourists: architecture after coronavirus, 2020. [Online]
Available through https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/13/smart-lifts-
lonely-workers-no-towers-architecture-after-covid-19-coronavirus
Urbanism "is one of the best tools we have" in the fight against climate change, 2021. [Online]
Available through https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/29/carbon-urbanism-climate-
change-taylor-francis/
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