Fortified pantries and a plastic comeback: Predictions on post-pandemic design
What will the world look like after COVID-19? Designers have a few ideas.
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The mandatory lockdown measures and travel restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus have induced shifts in mass behavior on a scale never before seen. Not convinced? Consider that as humans move less, so does the planet, with seismic vibrations falling by as much as a third, according to one estimate.
Change of that magnitude has prompted experts to consider what the world will look like after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, even as it continues its deadly spread. A parade of design gurus have pondered that question in recent days. Their predictions vary widely, but there seems to be broad agreement on one point: Things will never be the same. Here are eight possible changes in the post-pandemic era that might shape—and be shaped by—designers.
An exodus from cities
Jack Shenker, writing in The Guardian, says that as the crisis turbocharges the work-from-home movement, it leads to the “de-densifying” of cities, eliminating the need for suburbs. He envisions a future in which existing city centers connect with employees in far-flung “new villages,” while traditional commuter belts fade away. Urbanist Joel Kotkin notes that many of the very things that give large cities their allure also make them dangerous. “Crowds, mass transit, clubs and huge cultural venues create a perfect terroir for the spread of pathogens,” he writes for Fortune. Kotkin thinks telecommuting will create the basis for a “new kind of dispersed urban experience” described by late urban designer William Mitchell as “city of bits.”
Distaste for tall buildings
Architects have predicted the death of the skyscraper for years, but Ukrainian architect Sergey Makhno predicts we will emerge from the crisis with a lasting horror of tall buildings. “In times of pandemic, it is necessary to reduce contact with everything that is used in multi-story buildings: elevator, elevator buttons, door handles, surfaces and, above all, neighbors,” he argues in Dezeen. “After forced self-isolation on different floors above the ground, often without a balcony of terrace, we will all desperately want to have a house.”
Clean rooms and fortified pantries
And what will those houses look like? Home offices will be an essential feature, of course. But Makhno predicts we’ll also want them to include special clean rooms to shrug off dirty clothes and accept deliveries, fortified pantries to stockpile food, indoor vegetable gardens to grow our own tomatoes, and elaborate air-filters and self-sufficient water and power systems.
Contact-less consumption
Consumers will emerge from the pandemic newly conscious of hygiene—and with a profound aversion to touching things. They’ll shell out for lamps with ultra-violet radiation that kills germs, demand bidets instead of toilets, wash their hands with soap that changes color after 30 seconds of scrubbing, shun hand towels for blow dryers, favor gadgets with motion sensors, and don electric wristbands that punish them with a buzz whenever they touch their face. Will we ever shake hands again?
A comeback for plastic
The Wall Street Journal worries the pandemic will prove a huge setback for the war on single-use plastic as sales of masks and wipes soar. Consumers will insist on disposable packaging for their groceries and refuse to reuse cups while putting fears about their personal health over concerns about the environment.
Stay-at-home everything
Many experts foresee a world in which no one goes out anymore. The post-plague era bodes ill for anyone who works in a club, bar, restaurant, boutique, fitness club, cinema, or shopping mall. Things look especially bleak for the travel industry. But there’s an upside for cookbook authors, makers of kitchen appliances, and purveyors of online games and entertainment.
Remote generations
The pandemic has been profoundly disruptive to Generation Z, the oldest members of which are 25. Schools have been dismissed, admissions and advanced placement exams downgraded or cancelled. And yet today’s students and their children (Generation Alpha) will come of age in a world where remote learning and collaboration are the rule rather than the exception.
The rise of the surveillance state
South Korea and China have shown the value of using smart phones, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence to diagnose disease, predict infection hot spots, and monitor and control social interactions. The former kept mortality rates low partly by mapping and publishing the movements of infected citizens. The latter recruited its two largest technology companies to enforce quarantine of the sick. Yuval Noah Harari worries that these successes in a time of emergency invite a “creeping authoritarianism” that will become the new normal. “Today, for the first time in human history,” he laments, “technology makes it possible to monitor everyone all the time.”
To hear the experts tell it, our brave new post-COVID world offers challenges and opportunities for designers from nearly every discipline. That, in turn, raises another question: How will they respond?
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Clay Chandler
@ClayChandler
Clay.Chandler@Fortune.com