Home office as homework, literally and metaphorically. Many commentaries concerning the coronavirus epidemic mention the need of doing our homework, individually and collectively.
Some of it involves questions about the future. In what world / country / city will we live after the pandemic? Will public space remain synonymous with danger? Where does justified control end and panopticon begin? WIll there be new models of work?
Will architecture sooth the collective imagination? If so, what solutions will it use? Will we design spaces so sterile (also aesthetically – stylised as a lab) that reminding about hygiene won’t be necessary because the space itself will remind about it? Or maybe on the contrary: we will escape into fable and fantasy, incorporating it in the office and commercial interiors?
Many questions, even more doubts. First commentaries have arrived, but the situation is so dynamic that for now it is difficult to say which answers will turn out to be true.
One of the first commentaries which led to an international discussion wasan interview with Lidewij Edelkoort conducted by Dezeen. Edelkoort said that the epidemic may be a good pretext to undergo quarantine from excessive consumption and then build a system based on better considered values. Her standpoint met with strong reactions: some of the commentators agreed with her while others accused Edelkoort of wishful thinking or even being out of touch with reality.
A few bold thoughts about the current situation (among others by Robert Konieczny, Agata Twardoch, Simone de Iacobis, Małgorzata Kuciewicz and Krzysztof Nawratek) were published by a cultural-social magazine „Notes na 6 tygodni”. Apart from texts there are 2 video coverages, including “Diary from a quarantine in Beijing” produced by Arte television.
A similar survey is ongoing in PropertyNews. Architects and industry representatives are cautious with their outlooks, almost everyone agrees that it’s too early.
What seems to be certain is that it’s impossible to remain indifferent towards the epidemic. It’s best illustrated by a statement by Marta Sękulska-Wrońska (Partner at WXCA, Head of Warsaw Branch of SARP): – Crisis is an impulse for change. I believe that thanks to this experience we will see our civilisational mistakes and withdrawal from consumerism will gain headway while basic values become increasingly important.
