PROJECT CONTEXT

South Africa entered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days at midnight on 26 March 2020. In President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Nationwide Address delivered on 23 March 2020, he stated, “This is a decisive measure to save millions of South Africans from infection and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people” (SA News, 2020).

The pandemic affected and continues to have a global effect. Society moved to a ‘new normal’ without fully understanding its implications. Wearing masks became second nature, sanitising became a habit and social distancing created a sense of safety. An accentuated social ‘bubble’ is one of the results emanating from these preventive measures.

The implementation of Lockdown Level 5 regulations rendered all South African university residences empty. Students at the Tshwane University of Technology were only allowed to return to their residences nearly five months later at the end of August 2020.

During these five months, students continued with their studies via emergency remote teaching and learning. Hence, students’ homes became their study areas, restaurants, gyms, and relaxation areas. Students who previously lived in residences balanced their academic activities with their homes’ daily routines and chores. This adjustment changed the way intended spaces are used by assigning new purposes to accommodate the needs created by the pandemic.

With the advent of digital teaching-and-learning platforms and the resultant adjustment to remote learning, this change is not a viable long-term solution. Some students are at a technological disadvantage and thus fall behind in their progress in their academic studies. Pre-pandemic university residences need to adapt to house the needs necessary that are created by the pandemic. Pandemic architecture will consider the needs and improve functionality in a space by reshaping an existing university residence using the ‘new normal’ guidelines, which will normalise how spaces and people function.

We are already in the ‘new normal’ and as spaces and habits change, architecture should not follow but lead. This minidissertation examines related research with the ‘new’ guidelines implemented as pandemic-inspired design principles for reshaping a vacant university residential building.