CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A POST-PANDEMIC BUILT ENVIRONMENT (OASIS FORUM 5.0)
Arc. Mobolaji Adeniyi
Distinguished colleagues, members of the high table, ladies and gentlemen.
I am very happy and pleased to be part of this year’s forum with all these beautiful faces in this room.
This is the 5th edition of the OASIS forum, and I believe we are all glad to be here again as the world has had its own share of ups and downs.
For us here, OASIS could mean “Osun Architects’ Sustainable Information Synthesis”, but generally all over the world OASIS is a fertile place where there is water in the midst of a desert or a place of calm in the midst of chaos.
Calm in the midst of chaos. Then we can say “opportunities in the midst of challenges”-this is the theme of this year’s forum- Challenges, Opportunities in a post-pandemic built environment.
The recent pandemic has indeed stretched world governments to their elastic limits leaving them to cope with a sudden and somewhat unexpected chaos the best way they can. Families, health, jobs have suffered in the hands of the pandemic. Even for those of us lucky enough to have our health and jobs intact, it is or was once hard to bear, even though when the pandemic started, people who have lived through a few crises before reminded us, “This too shall pass,”. Some believed, some did not. Not because they did not want to but because of the extent of Covid-19’s damage.
The built environment which is like our oasis-a refuge for all and sundry was not left out of the chaos as homes became temporary health centres, offices deserted, factories shut down, tourists centres literally dried up and busy roads became strangely quite like never before. There was the negative impact in the construction industry, transportation problems, shortage of labour, supply chain management, contractual implication problem, unemployment, financial problems to mention few. The built environment we all cherished was hit like we have never seen. These are some of the challenges we faced, which some parts of the world still face.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2020, expected a fall between 13 to 32 percent fall in world trade as the covid-19 pandemic disrupted economic activities all over the world, and the expected recovery in the year 2021 was not even certain (World Trade Organisation, 2020).
Here in Nigeria and all around the globe, the covid-19 pandemic has affected the economy and in one way or the other will permanently reshape our world as it continues to unfold. The crisis is showing us its risks and at the same time clearly presenting opportunities to realise our ignorance and build back even better. Maybe it is high time we leveraged the opportunities this crisis offers to improve the state of the world.
As Architects, the pandemic has given us the opportunity to start re-thinking design- a key factor in any successful built environment. The recent pandemic has brought about greater sense of appreciation to our different homes. This could be credited to the sit-at-home order from the government or the work-from-home order from employers as the case may be. According to Kashdan, 2020 & Priday, 2020, the expectation is that even after the quarantine period, more people will still work from home. People need houses that can provide social isolation and offer protection from infection. Several studies have reported that there is a direct association between crowding and adverse health outcomes even before the pandemic started and maybe this pandemic is telling us as designers to start bringing back to life the design concepts we have known in order to save lives through our designs and not complicate issues in times of emergencies as this.
For example, in Nigeria, some urban transport hubs like airports, train stations and bus stations feature health screening, temperature checks, and crowd control measures on when the pandemic started. But ordinarily, do we really need crowd control measures in the built environment? Definitely! We as designers of the built environment need to see the opportunity to start designing for the possible future, that is sustainability. The pandemic is giving us the opportunity to start showing forth our sustainability design prowess unapologetically. This crisis is giving us a clean slate to start asking questions like:
- Do we need a reasonable amount of garden space which will enhance better facilities for social distancing? Yes, we do.
- Should we encourage temporary structures that can help provide shelter during emergencies like this and not over-flood hospitals that have no spaces for patients? Yes, we should.
- Should we move from structured office work to more remote arrangements, which will help flexible office arrangements in times of crisis like this? Yes, we should.
- Should we improve our knowledge of technology? having digital meetings, tap more into software management syatems relevant to our work scope and reducing physical travels? Yes, we should.
- Should government, policy makers and planners review planning theories to avoid high density and overcrowding. Yes, they really should.
We realise we need to ask ourselves these questions as designers thanks to the opportunity we see in these “challenging” times around the world.
You know, it wouldn’t be surprising to know that more people learnt new skills online during the pandemic as there was at some point a sit-at-home order from the government. People began to look for better ways to do design works without necessarily having to be physically available.
At my office at some point for example, when the pandemic started, we had to come up with strategies to continue work and learn ways to handle projects sometimes without seeing each other thanks to technology (zoom meetings, webinars and others).
Other people that are lucky enough grabbed the opportunity the pandemic gave and came across freelancing- a platform that has been in existence for years. Through the different freelancing platforms (fiverr, upwork, pay per hour, just to mention a few), they were able to make end meet and survive the pandemic and even the post pandemic.
These are all opportunities the pandemic and given us especially as professionals or intending professionals to reflect on the past events and learn what can be improved for unseen future responses. In the words of Naglaa and Ehab, 2020 “Our built environment is not designed or built to effectively help limit the effects of pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are learning fast and there are already lessons worth learning and remembering. The pandemic will not last forever, but our response to it will shape our future built environment”.
In Conclusion, we have the challenges of the post pandemic and yet we have been blessed with the opportunity to live through it and save the future generation. An opportunity to see the gold in the mud. Let us as a people grab it the best way we can, to save the present and the future.
Thank you.
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