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Findings

01 The New Human Experience: Cocooning

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Personal customization of space is a pivotal role in the selection of a home.

• Home is no longer seen as something that is required to be permanent.

  • Short term leases are preferred over long term.

  • Rentals that can also be used as office space, etc. are preferred with adaptable open-plan spaces, furnishings and fixtures. Understanding Generation Z is the Key to Multifamily Housing Success, McHugh Construction

Threat Response Principles:

• Learned behavior: Cocooning
  COVID-19: 5 new human truths that experiences need to address, Accenture

  • Home has become the epicenter of life and experience.

  • People will invest more heavily in their homes to make their lives in quarantine more meaningful and comfortable.

  • Creative strategies that allow residents to stay local and close to home will flourish.

02 Location: Cities still matter.

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Many residents consider their neighborhood a part of their home.

• The urban services and amenities near where you live become increasingly important for healthy life balance.

  The Generation Z world: Shifts in urban design, architecture and the corporate workplace, Corporate Real Estate Journal

Threat Response Principles:

• Maintain dense urban centers. This is critical for those with fewer resources, i.e. those with less economic mobility, dependent on childcare and/or public transportation, low wage income earners and/or dependent on public healthcare options.
  Our cities may never look the same again after the pandemic, CNN.com

• Residents will depend more strongly on their local neighborhoods and are critical to support various socioeconomic income levels.
  After pandemic, safe and sound affordable housing needs to be addressed, The Washington Post

  • Restrict travel to the immediate neighborhood for all goods and services.

  • Maximize services obtainable inside the home.

• Diversity of skills and income-levels - a cross-section of professions ranging from service providers, skilled workers to professionals - within a neighborhood promotes population resiliency. Homogeneity will ultimately suffer.

  • Heterogeneous urban neighborhoods will be able to quarantine and recover utilizing the skill sets of residents located fully within the neighborhood boundaries.

  • Homogeneous suburban locales will ultimately have to look outward of their boundaries to meet all required skill sets.
    Density Is Normally Good for Us. That Will Be True After Coronavirus, Too, The New York Times

• In Multi-family housing scenarios, property security lines can be seen as ‘safety’ lines where screening can occur to ensure protection of the community at large.

  • This preserves ‘home’ as the safest location for both quarantining and recovering.

03 Social Spaces: Maintain a sense of community

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Considered nice-to-have but not seen as essential.

• Over-sized and under-utilized, allowing for a reconceptualizing of use and function.

• Act as viable ‘work-from-home’ spaces thanks to openness and access to daylight / fresh air.

Threat Response Principles:

• Provide thoughtful community spaces for co-working and entertainment.
  The Tech-Enabled Post Pandemic City, IBI Group The Pandemic Is Changing How The Next Wave Of Apartment Amenities Will Be Designed, Bisnow.com

  • Social distancing remains possible with the reconfiguration of less furniture and / or designated use zones.

  • Internal social space use could increase as access to external options are limited.

  • Provide flexible spaces where multiple people can work or gather together, but still be properly separated.

• Provide the opportunity for enhanced services delivered to a house or apartment.

  • Wellness practices for Physical and mental health, including doctor’s visits, counseling, tutoring, physical movement, music, etc.
    Wellness in Coronavirus Times — Real Strategies and Mental Health Best Practices for Coping With the World in Duress, Paper City

  • Recognize opportunities for social engagement.

    • Provide digital ‘community boards’ where residents can post needs or services to help serve their community.

    • Remote game nights where residents can utilize technology platforms to play together while remaining apart.

• Utilize touchless technology to allow access to spaces and services to continue unhindered.

  • Access to shared social spaces and services.

  • Elevator controls.

  • Parking and building points of entry.

04 Work from Home: Flexibility must be inherent.

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Housing looked to provide the basic need of shelter.

• Supported other resources - work, healthcare, etc. - but ultimately allowed them to be found elsewhere.

Threat Response Principles:

The Pandemic Is Changing How The Next Wave Of Apartment Amenities Will Be Designed, Bisnow.com

• Provide flexible spaces to work and create.

  • Units with dens or dedicated zones for working.

  • On-site co-working facilities with various levels of privacy.

  • Acoustic design to support teleconferencing.

• Recognize the inherent flexibility of housing to be reinvented.
  The Role of Higher Education Housing in Fighting COVID-19, Clark Nexsen

  • Emergency hospitals, rehab centers (single rooms, accessibility design)

  • Emergency housing for first responders or vulnerable populations.

• Design for future adaptation.

  • Antimicrobial surfaces and materials.

  • Up-sizing of elevators and corridors for emergency access.

  • Support for other kinds of future work, i.e. spaces for future nursing stations, power and data infrastructure, robust MEP systems.

05 Biophilia and the Connection to Outdoors: The Consequences of Disconnection

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Biophilia, driving a tendency to commune with nature, is pursued even from within our homes and apartments.

• Residents choose their housing locations based on proximity to open space and visit them frequently.

• Some claim to feel most ‘at home’ in the outdoors.
  

Threat Response Principles:

• Access to usable private outdoor space is paramount when access to shared or public outdoor space becomes compromised.
  A Lesson from Social Distancing: Build Better Balconies, CityLab.com

  • Every apartment should have a balcony, or a better balcony sized for usability.

    • Rooftops, offering larger spaces, views and landscaping can become escapes, places of reflection and performance stages.

  • Personal or shared gardens; Community Supported agriculture

  • Fresh air
    High-rise urban living and COVID-19: What are the risks and can we design pandemic-proof buildings?, CityRealty.com

    • Operable windows.

    • Bolster filtration systems (MERV-13 or HEPA) in houses and apartments.

    • Duct fresh air to every apartment, this is a rarity today.

06 Convenience: Necessities are the new Amenities.

Pre-Threat Principles:

• Convenience amenities are always attractive.

• Wants may change, but busy lifestyles are here to stay

Threat Response Principles:
The Tech-Enabled Post Pandemic City, IBI Group

• On-site child care.

• Deliveries and out-sourced shopping.

  • Allow for the storage of food, water, medicine and supplies

  • Provide access to refrigerated delivery storage.

• Emergency power back-up

• Multiple forms of Digital communication

  • Wireless service and internet access are considered a minimum basic need.

07 Transportation: Private and/or Protected

Pre-Threat Principles:

• The provision of less private parking in apartments is trending.

• Private garage in houses is still the standard.

• Good public infrastructure (transit, walking / biking paths) and ride-sharing options make this possible.

Threat Response Principles:

• Personal protection is critical if anyone intends to leave their home.

• Private automobile, returns as a counter-trend.

  • Expect an increase in the use of the automobile, especially for homeowners.

  • In apartments, individuals will want to park their own cars

• Alternative Private Transportation.
  Our cities may never look the same again after the pandemic, CNN.com

  • Bicycle use will spike, requiring more secure, and possibly private, storage.

  • The use of electric motorized scooters and bicycles will spike, requiring their own unique solutions to storage, and recharging.

• Public transportation and Ride-sharing, after a hiatus, will continue to trend.

  • Once personal protection is perfected, the trend will continue.

  • Separation of driver and passengers will become the norm, and will be considered in future bus and automobile design. Customizable privacy panels will be available for makes and models of all vehicles.