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That in a building it could not be cleaned with bleach due to the loss of its efficiency in the face of a virus, that a living room had movable partitions or that the kitchen furniture could be covered with a panel to the ground to turn it into the background of a videoconference it was science fiction before the arrival of the coronavirus . However, the pandemic has turned the world of design around after revealing that most homes are not prepared for a total closure that includes combining telework, children and life within a space that was never intended for such a combination. Neither by meters nor by culture.

Architects, builders, organizers and professionals in certifying the health of buildings are already on the path of change and reinvention . Customer demand has varied, they acknowledge. "His criteria and demands will be different after this." And all of them have understood the need to recalculate the model. Above this approach, a new concept of multifunctional houses prepared for another situation of this type, in which the spaces can be re-adapted and their materials are prepared to repel external aggressions and protect their tenants.

The architects Ricardo Casal , Carlos Paternina and the professional organizer who is also specializing in monitoring the quality of water, air and materials of the structures, Ana Samper , fly over four concepts: that future houses are more versatile, open spaces , flexible and healthy. They are the vanguard of a trend that, it seems, is here to stay.

The new lines of work to improve the habitability of the houses do not imply that they become more expensive, which really means that everything is being rethought. Casal, Paternina and Samper have diagnosed the errors. "The balconies have not been given importance. What's more, they have always been used to gain meters from the house and now, with this situation, they have revealed themselves as the public part of the house, the place where we interact with others. The terraces are a relief from the house », Casal reasons.

“The pandemic has forced us to spend more time at home in a society accustomed to spending a lot of time outside of it and using it as if it were a hotel. Now we have opened our eyes ”, he adds. “Static distributions no longer work. Now you have to think that the living room can be a play area for children, a space where you can throw the ball to the dog or a work area ». For this it proposes panels, mobile partitions or sliding doors.

«The customer will really be the one who chooses but we are already seeing that the chip is changing and that the kitchen, for example, can become an office just by lowering a panel from the ceiling to the floor and covering the furniture, the fires and the worktop », Explains Paternina. The architect abounds in the "versatility" of the houses and emphasizes the importance of energy efficiency. “The pandemic has led to a considerable increase in light and water. The aerotermia , for example, would end with this because you have connected pump air conditioning and the energy generated is used to heat water for free. " Paternina indicates that this does not mean having an expensive home. “A good isolation is not worth money, but in many macro-urbanizations this type of issue has been ignored. Promoters should be asked what percentage of benefits they would be willing to stop entering. "

"We propose an avant-garde and future architecture where there are good orientations, diversity and that more than beautiful spaces they can serve many things at the same time."

Samper's specialization in Well Certification - a tool recently approved in Spain based on the measurement of environmental parameters such as the quality of air, water or light - may still sound Chinese, but it is making its way in Spain, although still incipient way. His job will be for the well-being of people inside houses and buildings. "Not only is it verified when it is built, but it is maintained over time and after three years it expires, so a new overhaul must be done." "The goal is to be toxic-free," he insists.

And how does this translate into practice? "Well, in the importance of materials, in that there are surfaces that do not chemically absorb, that are capable of rejecting any type of virus, in ensuring that it is not cleaned with any product so that the materials do not lose their effectiveness." «From now on we are going to measure the quality of our well-being and pay attention to it. We talk about more than hygiene or cleanliness. We are talking about sustainability that affects health.

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