How global crisis affects design
Public spaces in a COVID-19 world
Architecture and indoor spaces have been largely implicated in the spread of coronavirus, so many urban planners are thinking about ways to best utilize outdoor spaces for the public in a way that promotes equality and health safety concerns. Cities around the world have built new bike lanes, widened sidewalks, and even closed down streets to cars in order to make room for socially distanced, alternate forms of transport. Street parking spots have been replaced by extended restaurants offering outdoor dining, thus diversifying the spaces for use by different groups.
Increased sustainable and transparent design in vehicles
The pandemic has accelerated three major disruptions in the car industry: 1) Electrification, 2) Autonomous driving, and 3) Circularity, or an economic system that aims to eliminate waste and the continual use of resources. During his TNW2020 talk, Polestar design director Max Missoni posed the question: “How can design come up with a sustainable solution for a more sustainable future?”
It all comes back to the idea that form follows function. Polestar’s designers have embodied this concept by highlighting design aspects that would otherwise be hidden “under the hood.” For example, the designers of the Polestar Precept, an electric concept car by Polestar, incorporate the use of flax fiber into the car’s design. Flax fiber is a material often used for linens, but used in vehicle design, it has the mechanical properties of carbon fiber, it’s 50% lighter than conventional interior panels and it reduces plastic content in the car by 80%. Instead of hiding that material in the second layer, the designers decided to backlight the material to demonstrate both its beauty and imperfections.
“With Precept, we looked to take sustainability and turn it into an aesthetic, to not just hide sustainable materials behind the skin, but to celebrate them, to turn them into a design language,” said Missoni.
When considering how to do just this with autonomous vehicles, Volvo auto designers are looking for ways to incorporate systems like radars, cameras, and laser scanners needed for autonomous driving into the design language. One example Missoni gave with the Volvo 360c, a fully autonomous, fully electric vehicle concept, was to place the laser scanner device on the roof, “celebrating it and treating it like a technological gem.”
By capitalizing on the design freedom afforded by the absence of a steering wheel and combustion engine, designers of the 360c can reimagine the traditional placement of passengers in a vehicle, creating a design that follows the function of a sleeping environment, a mobile office, a living room, or an entertainment space.
Polestar as a brand isdedicated to sustainability and transparency. It recently published its Life Cycle Assessment on the Polestar 2 in order to show carbon emissions of its vehicle throughout its life cycle so that it can improve at every step of the process.
But the problem, as Missoni pointed out during the TNW2020 Conference, is that within the life cycle of any product, even electric vehicles, we’re still mostly taking resources, creating products, using them for a while, and disposing of them. The world grinding to a halt during the pandemic has highlighted the intense environmental concerns we face as a species, and so we know that industries, especially the car industry, need to move towards a circular economy.
“We have to make sure products have the right degree of maintenance, are designed to be reused, are designed to be refurbished so they can be refreshed and kept in the cycle longer, and ultimately are designed to be as recyclable as humanly possible. And this is a big challenge for all of us, not just the car industry,” said Missoni. “If we start with these ideas at the conception and incorporate these thoughts into the design process, we’re getting a huge step closer to the only true sustainable future, which is a circular one.”
Workplaces modified for safety and technological productivity
If and when people start returning to workplaces, they won’t find the same spaces that they did before. Workplaces will have to be modified to account for health and safety concerns, as well as new technologies. Some offices are doing away with the “open office” plan and returning to the days of cubicles. Designers are working out ways to increase sunlight and fresh air flow into buildings, as well as offering up more sanitization stations for workers to wash their hands throughout the day.
Another interesting development in workplace design will be retooling for more virtual collaboration. Now that we’ve had a taste of remote work, it’s unlikely that every worker will return to the office five days a week, especially ones who are immunocompromised. Therefore, designers will have to incorporate technology in such a way that remote workers aren’t relegated to a lesser status.
What will that look like? Will virtual and augmented reality become a common technology used in offices? Will groups gather virtually with avatars for conference meetings? One thing is certain: Workplaces will encompass ahybrid reality, one with integrated digital collaboration tools, next-level conference, sensors, and other smart technologies.
If you want to hear more insights into how crisis affects design, you can watchMax Missoni’s TNW2020 talk above this article.
Story byRebecca Bellan
Rebecca Bellan is a journalist who covers social media and technology innovation for Forbes.com. She has a background covering urbanization,(show all)Rebecca Bellan is a journalist who covers social media and technology innovation for Forbes.com. She has a background covering urbanization, policy, and transportation, and her work has been featured in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, and more.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
