Rethinking Designs

Architects are putting new ideas on the drawing board for a post-pandemic world

By Andrew Weeks

The coronavirus pandemic has created some new trends in business and accelerated others. While it’s yet to be seen what all of the new trends might be on the horizon for architecture and engineering firms, the pandemic certainly has sparked fresh ideas about what buildings may look like in the future.

Some of the ideas being tossed around now in the industry are about modifying office space, installing more touchless features, and creating better airflow in buildings to help mitigate virus spread.

“At this point I don’t know if new trends have been created but it has brought certain discussion to the forefront,” said Andrew Eitreim, principal architect with Architecture Incorporated in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Six months, a year, two years from now it will be interesting to see what further developments have come about in the industry because of a heightened fear of viruses. Mike Dunn, business development manager with Construction Engineers Inc. in Grand Forks, N.D., who works with architects and engineers all of the time in his line of work, said he is confident these professionals in the upper Midwest will meet the challenges of a quickly-changing world.

“The architects in our area really stay up to date on those trends,” he said.

Touchless Features

Ryan Anderson, senior architect and vice president of Ackerman-Estvold, an architecture and engineering firm based in Minot, N.D., was the first to suggest to Prairie Business what some of the trends might be for his industry going forward in a post-pandemic world.

“Obviously this whole pandemic has created an interesting situation for everyone,” Anderson said. “It really gives us a chance to kind of take stock of our surroundings and look at the potential sources of spread.”

He said the pandemic has raised further awareness not just about the dangers of COVID-19 but other diseases, such as the common cold or the seasonal influenza virus. If people were to examine their office spaces, he said, they’d realize just how many places germs can settle and contaminate.

Anderson is not being dramatic, he’s being practical. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the novel coronavirus may remain viable on surfaces from hours to days, depending on the surface material.

“We're never going to fully stop the spread of something like this,” he said, “but we can certainly take a look at our surroundings and say, ‘What can I do to reduce or mitigate the risk?’”

That’s something A&E firms across the country have been considering since at least March. A new standard for many businesses is to disinfect surfaces and often-touched items several times a day. But even that might not be enough for some businesses. Marc Mellmer, vice president of JE Dunn Construction, who is based in Minneapolis but oversees projects in North Dakota, said some companies that installed touch-screen devices may very well consider now going to “touchless” devices.

He and Anderson were echoing what a national architecture journal explained about the subject.

“Almost everyone predicts that public spaces will move toward more automation to mitigate contagion, with COVID-19 speeding up development of all types of touchless technology,” according to the Architecture Digest. That includes more “automatic doors, voice-activated elevators, cellphone-controlled hotel room entry, hands-free light switches and temperature controls, automated luggage bag tags, and advanced airport check-in and security.”

Restrooms with doors were already on their way out, but the pandemic has hastened their retreat. The digest also said hotels will likely have self-cleaning bathrooms and pod rooms, which are “smaller modular spaces that can be sealed off from other guests while also offering the ability to be quickly torn down and disinfected.” What’s more, firms “will increasingly call on antibacterial fabrics and finishes, including those that already exist – like copper – and those that will inevitably be developed.”

While such things as automatic doors and paper towel rollers are nothing new – big-box retailers such as Target and Walmart already have auto doors, for instance – Anderson said he believes more businesses will come on board wanting those types of touchless features. At Ackerman-Estvold, he said, designers are considering what else may be beneficial for companies going forward in the fight against contaminants and viruses.

“The more automated you can make things, the better off you're going to be,” he said. “Having automatic entrances that don't require you to touch something in order to enter that building may not be continued on page 14