Towards a new society brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic;
Changing values and the future of environmental design
Kitaro Mizuide, Executive Officer, Principal, Building Services Design Division, Engineering Department, NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD
（The positions in this article were current at the time of publication.）
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Today, we are witnessing the profound transformation brought on by the novel coronavirus to a way of life that we once took for granted. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, we had already found ourselves in the midst of climate change, shrinking birthrates and aging populations, subsequent decarbonization and changes in work styles, as well as the transition to a highly streamlined digital society through AI and IoT. These are all unfolding in a single stroke.
In these times, I would like to discuss the new relationship between environmental engineering and architecture/cities as we see them.
Kitaro Mizuide, Executive Officer, Principal, Building Services Design Division, Engineering Department, NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD
（The positions in this article were current at the time of publication.）
Opportunities to change values
There is an expectation that COVID-19 will be an opportunity to raise awareness and interest in a variety of issues that have been recognized as important but have not been put into practice.
Since the Club of Rome’s report, The Limits to Growth (1972), we have been told to move away from our dependence on fossil energy resources. Global warming has caused the manifestation of abnormal weather patterns around the world, eventually launching a change in direction to renewable energy sources. In addition, following catastrophes such as 3/11, we learned that over-concentration leads to vulnerabilities in infrastructure and that a reasonable amount of decentralization is needed. As a result, we find ourselves in a situation where we have seen indications of the widespread use of decentralized power sources in cities and local power in rural areas.
I feel as if we have come away from this pandemic with a number of revelations. The restrictions on going out and shifting to working from home presented us with the opportunity to think about wellness and our ideal offices, and by avoiding the 3Cs (closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings), we were forced to think about the importance of no contact and ventilation. I think that the meaning of flexibility has expanded as the boundaries between applications have become less defined, such as when our homes become our office spaces. In the future, it is likely that the urban and architectural environment will need to be prepared for the addition of “infectious diseases” to complex disasters. In this era of shifting values, we want to respond to these issues from the perspective of environmental engineers.
Since the Club of Rome’s report, The Limits to Growth (1972), we have been told to move away from our dependence on fossil energy resources. Global warming has caused the manifestation of abnormal weather patterns around the world, eventually launching a change in direction to renewable energy sources. In addition, following catastrophes such as 3/11, we learned that over-concentration leads to vulnerabilities in infrastructure and that a reasonable amount of decentralization is needed. As a result, we find ourselves in a situation where we have seen indications of the widespread use of decentralized power sources in cities and local power in rural areas.
I feel as if we have come away from this pandemic with a number of revelations. The restrictions on going out and shifting to working from home presented us with the opportunity to think about wellness and our ideal offices, and by avoiding the 3Cs (closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings), we were forced to think about the importance of no contact and ventilation. I think that the meaning of flexibility has expanded as the boundaries between applications have become less defined, such as when our homes become our office spaces. In the future, it is likely that the urban and architectural environment will need to be prepared for the addition of “infectious diseases” to complex disasters. In this era of shifting values, we want to respond to these issues from the perspective of environmental engineers.
Symbiosis between the open architectural environment and nature
This spring, there were likely a number of people who, as they moved from their offices in the heart of the city to working from home, came into close contact with their natural surroundings and experienced a fresh sense of wonder and delight at their awareness of the seasons and the changes throughout the day. The innate affinity people have with nature to seek comfort is called “biophilia”. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in wellbeing to create a healthy and comfortable living environment. “Biophilic design”, which incorporates nature and ecosystems into the architectural environment, emphasizes openness and has a high degree of affinity with considerations for infection control (Fig. 1).
Fig.1
Offices of the future will be required to offer more significance to gatherings and richer spaces for people to interact. In other words, I believe that there will be a need for an architectural environment that incorporates nature, includes open spaces where people can bask in the sunshine and gentle breeze, and feel close to greenery and water. It is all about maximizing the use of natural energy and minimizing the use of energy from fossil fuels to create a comfortable and healthy living environment (Fig. 2).
Fig.2
Engineering originating from the concept of avoiding the 3Cs
Our architectural and environmental design can be said to have a significant role to play in non-contact and ventilation measures that are important aspects in preventing infections.
The smart building concept includes non-contact solutions. Contact can be minimized with the use of technology that has already been developed and by controlling movement between people, as well as between people and things in a cloud-based remote environment. In addition, if robot technologies are introduced across the board and architectural/environment designs are implemented to ensure that this technology can function optimally, we will be able to further promote a non-contact environment. Smart buildings were originally designed to make building operators more versatile and efficient. With the addition of a perspective on non-contact, even more technological development and designs are likely to advance in the future.
In measures on ventilation, we are focusing on the idea of one-way ventilation. Traditionally, most air conditioning and ventilation are blown out from and drawn in through the ceiling. However, if we look at this from a different angle, air can be directed so that it flows one way with cooled fresh air blown out from the ceiling and all the air drawn in and released from the floor. This method is expected to reduce the risk of infection with the use of a clean ambient environment by avoiding the recirculation and agitation of air caused by air conditioning and drawing in cold air and dust on the ground. With a combination of energy efficiency and ceiling radiant cooling and heating systems that offer a high level of comfort in response to demands for indoor heating and cooling, this has the potential to become a new type of air conditioning in this time of health, comfort and energy savings. I believe that this air conditioning system, which has already been developed and is highly compatible in consideration of sparse spaces and infectious diseases, will meet the needs of society in the future (Fig. 3).
The smart building concept includes non-contact solutions. Contact can be minimized with the use of technology that has already been developed and by controlling movement between people, as well as between people and things in a cloud-based remote environment. In addition, if robot technologies are introduced across the board and architectural/environment designs are implemented to ensure that this technology can function optimally, we will be able to further promote a non-contact environment. Smart buildings were originally designed to make building operators more versatile and efficient. With the addition of a perspective on non-contact, even more technological development and designs are likely to advance in the future.
In measures on ventilation, we are focusing on the idea of one-way ventilation. Traditionally, most air conditioning and ventilation are blown out from and drawn in through the ceiling. However, if we look at this from a different angle, air can be directed so that it flows one way with cooled fresh air blown out from the ceiling and all the air drawn in and released from the floor. This method is expected to reduce the risk of infection with the use of a clean ambient environment by avoiding the recirculation and agitation of air caused by air conditioning and drawing in cold air and dust on the ground. With a combination of energy efficiency and ceiling radiant cooling and heating systems that offer a high level of comfort in response to demands for indoor heating and cooling, this has the potential to become a new type of air conditioning in this time of health, comfort and energy savings. I believe that this air conditioning system, which has already been developed and is highly compatible in consideration of sparse spaces and infectious diseases, will meet the needs of society in the future (Fig. 3).
Fig.3
Creating a flexible environment with boundary-free applications
COVID-19 is an opportunity for us to make the move into a society in which we must be prepared for infectious diseases. During pandemics, there are numerous cases where medical facilities were forced to act in response to skyrocketing numbers of patients with infectious diseases by using make-shift facilities, in addition to their original functions.
We recommend the creation of units that can be used as temporary spaces for medical care and hospital rooms with the use of a system called “TSUNAGI”, a temporary frame constructed from general-purpose wood, in combination with a simple HEPA filter unit. It is easy to quickly transform an auditorium or lobby into a space for emergency medical care. This can be done by flexibly converting wood that is normally used for interior materials and furniture and installing a “TSUNAGI” unit to control minimum air flow and quality using ventilation equipment.
Working remotely, our homes have become both offices and meeting rooms. Their applications and boundaries have fused together in a way to accommodate needs, with the unconstrained selection of how spaces will be used, from single to multiple functions. A variety of proposals have been made describing what the workplace will look like after people return to their offices. I believe that offices will move away from being densely crowded to becoming more spacious and shift from a closed to an open design.
Creating less dense spaces will lower the air conditioning load density, and more buildings will require only natural ventilation in the interim. In mid-summer and mid-winter, there may be increased demand for more comfortable radiant air conditioning without circulating air. Depending on the season, increasing openness with the outside and selecting office spaces that are partially outdoors may be important elements.
I hope that the development of an architectural environment that fully captures the meaning of people gathering will be the fruit that we harvest through our experience with COVID-19.
We recommend the creation of units that can be used as temporary spaces for medical care and hospital rooms with the use of a system called “TSUNAGI”, a temporary frame constructed from general-purpose wood, in combination with a simple HEPA filter unit. It is easy to quickly transform an auditorium or lobby into a space for emergency medical care. This can be done by flexibly converting wood that is normally used for interior materials and furniture and installing a “TSUNAGI” unit to control minimum air flow and quality using ventilation equipment.
Working remotely, our homes have become both offices and meeting rooms. Their applications and boundaries have fused together in a way to accommodate needs, with the unconstrained selection of how spaces will be used, from single to multiple functions. A variety of proposals have been made describing what the workplace will look like after people return to their offices. I believe that offices will move away from being densely crowded to becoming more spacious and shift from a closed to an open design.
Creating less dense spaces will lower the air conditioning load density, and more buildings will require only natural ventilation in the interim. In mid-summer and mid-winter, there may be increased demand for more comfortable radiant air conditioning without circulating air. Depending on the season, increasing openness with the outside and selecting office spaces that are partially outdoors may be important elements.
I hope that the development of an architectural environment that fully captures the meaning of people gathering will be the fruit that we harvest through our experience with COVID-19.
BCP and resilience to complex disasters
COVID-19 has helped us realize that an architectural environment must be prepared for complex disasters that sees infectious diseases added to earthquakes, typhoons, torrential rains, resulting power outages, and others. Here as well, I think that “decentralization and concentration” will be keywords. When functions are decentralized from a heavy concentration in the city center to neighboring cities, the resilience of these individual cities in energy and resources becomes important. They could become local self-sustaining bases by securing power, communications, water, food and supplies.
Approaches for creating self-sustaining architecture and cities
We attempted to provide an outlook based on the keywords of symbiosis with nature, smart technology for peace of mind, flexibility and resilience in answer to the question of how we, as engineers, can support society in the future in the coming age of the “new normal”. Going forward, I would like to introduce each of these keywords in more depth. The buds of all the technologies introduced have been germinated in the past and some have already been realized. We can say that COVID-19 has added new meaning to these technologies, along with a shift in values.
The stagnation of energy demand for fossil fuels due to the pandemic, coupled with the instability of the supply chain, has the potential to accelerate the move towards self-sufficiency for energy using natural energy around the world. I believe that it is important for architecture, cities and environmental engineering to support this movement. I hope that the “new normal” will be an opportunity to strengthen the steps in the direction of environmental symbiosis. (June 19, 2020)
The stagnation of energy demand for fossil fuels due to the pandemic, coupled with the instability of the supply chain, has the potential to accelerate the move towards self-sufficiency for energy using natural energy around the world. I believe that it is important for architecture, cities and environmental engineering to support this movement. I hope that the “new normal” will be an opportunity to strengthen the steps in the direction of environmental symbiosis. (June 19, 2020)
