- Marking on the ground, Plexiglas plates, improvised desk in the living room… The health crisis has changed our everyday living environments.
- During the confinement, the townspeople suffered from lack of space and green spaces.
- Will the coronavirus upset the architecture? Answer with an architect, an interior designer and a town planner.
Marking on the ground in front of schools and in the metro, Plexiglas plates at the cash desks, and office in the living room… The confinement has changed our environment. "There has been a response from architecture and town planning in history in the face of health crises", recalls Paul Jubert, associate architect at Séméio Architecture. The great transformations of Paris by Haussmann in the 19th century were thus essentially due to cholera. So will the coronavirus permanently change our habitats, our workspaces and our cities?
“As an architect, this crisis pushes me to go further. Solutions must be found to improve society. This break time must generate changes that make it possible to live better together and live better in short, ”says Michael Malapert, interior designer. "In the individual and collective space, this pandemic is an accelerator of phenomena, precepts, projects that we have already had in mind for years and towards which we are trying to tend", considers Paul Jubert.
"One of the keys is to return to good housing"
The living room or bedroom improvised office or gym during confinement. "The individual spaces have been tested to the maximum of their capacities", notes Paul Jubert. “All of this adds functionality to our homes,” adds Michael Malapert. A function that very often had not been thought of. "Telework will probably generate the production of new furniture," said the interior designer.
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Office of the day, in castle mode playmobil 🏰 #monbeauchateau #playmobil #teletravail
A post shared by LineB (@linebusnel_a_bxelles) on Jun 4, 2020 at 9:55 am PDT
"The question is how will we operate our homes of tomorrow to be able to articulate all these new uses", wonders Paul Jubert. In the countryside, confinement was easier to live with because the dwellings are larger. “One of the keys is to return to good housing, that is to say housing with a good surface. The average T3 in France has dropped below 60 m2 when most of our European neighbors have three rooms that are 72 or 75 m2, deplores the architect. Unfortunately, the chain is still caught up in economic value. We hope that this pandemic will revitalize these values. "
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- Yoga - 🧘♀️ Little relaxation session #yoga #fitness #sportmotivation #sportalamaison #detente #healthylifestyle #restezchezvous
A post shared by Sarah Naour (@naoursarah) on Apr 21, 2020 at 4:49 am PDT
"Coliving as a new standard"
"We can imagine a slightly more generous outdoor space by enlarging the balconies and loggias", approves Jack Arthaud, director general of the Etablissement Public d'Aménagement de Saint-Etienne (EPASE), "the only metropolis to have been in decline these last thirty years ”and a commune which has“ precedence over the way of working on these issues of crisis at city level. "
If it is difficult to imagine larger apartments of 15m2 in large metropolises where property prices are soaring, especially in new buildings, there are solutions such as coliving, housing mixing "shared common spaces and spaces private, ”says Michael Malapert. Residences with a gym, a laundry room, a guest bedroom, but also common telecommuting spaces. "One can imagine that this becomes a new standard of housing," says Michael Malapert. “We work a lot on these questions of coworking, coliving and shared spaces. This is one of the answers, ”says Jack Arthaud.
"The office will become more of a living space"
Will telework sign the end of open space? “I don't think so, believes Paul Jubert. The office surface will not change much, however, what can change is the rotation. There will be adjustments to working time to stick to new uses. "The office will become more of a space for living, creativity and exchanges to compensate for telework which will become more important," considers Michael Malapert.
"Do we have to come back to the office?" Questions Jack Arthaud, who advocates the reconciliation of work and housing spaces. The town planner relies on “third places”, namely shared and collaborative workspaces. “If I live in the countryside, I will not necessarily work at home, but in the next village where I will find a place to settle down with my computer and find other people who do not work not necessarily in the same company as me, "he explains.
What break the isolation of teleworking, find friendliness and limit travel. “If people have less need to be close to their place of work, they will have less transport constraints. This will encourage installation towards places closer to nature, ”hopes Michael Malapert.
"The need for green space is crucial"
City dwellers realized during confinement that "the need for green space is crucial", as Paul Jubert points out, who hopes "to bring this nature back to the city in collective and individual space". “We must stop asking the question: do I put a balcony or not even for a small apartment. The dwellings must also have a double orientation, or at a minimum, the small dwellings must be oriented on the right facade to the south or to the west, ”he explains.
"Reintroducing nature into the city is a very important subject," says Jack Arthaud, citing "experiments in old districts in the heart of Saint-Etienne" like these gardens dedicated to insects and birds. "They are reservoirs of biodiversity," he rejoices.
Shared gardens, green roofs, etc. “This notion of greening is essential. We are already aware of this. The pandemic must be an accelerator ”according to the architect. “We realized that we could all slow down a bit. And this opens up horizons that up to now we have not allowed ourselves, ”remarks Michael Malapert. And to imagine that “we allow ourselves time for activities such as gardening and the development of the vegetation around us. It is perhaps these spaces of leisure and creativity that will appear in the urban universe. "
"On the bike, we jumped ten years in one month"
The pandemic has and will accelerate the transformation of large cities. "On the bicycle, for example, we jumped ten years in a month," observes Paul Jubert. What uproar would have provoked, a few months ago, the transformation of rue de Rivoli, one of the main axes in Paris, into a cycle track? "The generalization of telework will lighten transport and roads", congratulates Paul Jubert. "It goes in the direction of history," confirms Michael Malapert.
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Rivoli, May 22, 1:30 p.m. #pistecyclabledetransition #pistecyclabletemporaire #coronapiste #solutionvelo #openstreets #paris
A post shared by CommuteDeParis (@commutedeparis) on May 22, 2020 at 5:15 am PDT
Cycling has also conquered new spaces on the Saint-Etienne road network. “We are accelerating. People need to move differently. This period allows experiments, which in normal times would have taken years, there it is done in a few days. People need to move differently. We are in tactical town planning, a transitory town planning in forced mode. And we'll see how it goes, ”says Jack Arthaud.
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In Nice, the cycling network is growing, the city's cyclability is changing! Many associations & collectives have worked in this direction in the past: VIVA06, Velorution06, & also in the present with the Nice à Vélo collective Somewhere I almost want to say: thank you corona! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #cycling #nice #riviera #product track #coronapiste #velo #bicyclette #collectif #association #bandecyclable #amenagement #cotedazur # covid19 #participation #provisoire #velorution #piste @villedenice
A post shared by Vélo École Cyclotrope (@_cyclotrope_) on May 19, 2020 at 2:30 am PDT
Like the markings of cycle paths on the road, the coronavirus has also made flower signs to encourage physical distance. "Will the floor marking be perpetuated in supermarkets? Perhaps. We will perhaps enter into a reinterpretation of the hygienist architecture of the XIXth century ”, wonders Paul Jubert, who estimates that“ the mutation of the public space will be delicate ”because it will be necessary to“ find the right balance between distancing and health security and creating links ”. "We must try to find convivial spaces with vegetation, benches and tables", adds Jack Arthaud. Objective after this coronavirus crisis? "Densify the city to make it a little more human," says Jack Arthaud. Habitat, workplaces and public space, like individuals, need to find meaning.
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- Style
- Telework
- Town planning
- Coronavirus
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