" Architects, architects , how can we help society in this situation?"
This appeal was published on their social networks by the architect and communication expert Ariadna Cantis just two days after the Government decreed a state of alert in our country. "Don't think I got too many responses," he laments. "At this time, all groups must claim their work, but also offer solutions and alternatives. Including architects."
She is not the only one to think like this. Shortly after, and with the same self-critical spirit, another colleague, Alberto Eltini, a founding partner along with Marina Martín from the study El Departamento, shared a similar call. In his opinion, "we should be present in decision-making in crises like this or, since this is not the case, stand up to look for ideas. We have lost weight in favor of other groups that have more to do with politics and management. And we ourselves are responsible. "
The plagues that have changed us
Historically, there are sometimes unsuspected links between architecture and the management of epidemic crises. José María Ezquiaga, National Prize for Urbanism in 2005, reminds us of some great epidemiological battles that left their mark on urban planning: "The plague epidemics that marked the Middle Ages imposed administrative control in the cities; and the same smallpox in the XVII century, and cholera in the XIX, which associated urban planning to the existence of basic structures, later, tuberculosis led to a radical change in the way of understanding housing, with the new technologies of glass and concrete. "
The first great contemporary pandemic came in especially troubled times when the importance of architectural design emerged again. "The First World War and the Spanish flu crisis led to an obsession with controlling the environment, which included portable architectures such as gas masks, " adds Iván López Munuera, academic, critic and Spanish curator residing in New York, which since 2015 develops its thesis on the architecture of HIV / AIDS at Princeton University.
Carlos Lamela, president of the Lamela studio, recalls that modern architecture established in the Athens Charter, at the beginning of the 20th century, the parameters of materials, light and ventilation in designs to promote health: "Architects like Le Corbusier had dictated manifestos that they went in this line due to the great unhealthiness and lack of hygiene of the urban centers of that time, and of the architecture in general, where there were hardly even sewage sanitation and drinking water networks. "
And today? This is how the world has reacted, from East to West
All this previous experience would be useless and we would not be able to apply it to the present. These days we are seeing emergency solutions that take advantage of existing technology: from a huge prefabricated block hospital built in Wuhan (China) in 10 days, to inflatable health centers manufactured in Girona and now serving thousands of people in Mexico. Field hospitals installed in parks, congress halls, ships and high-performance centers that take in patients worldwide (the photo gallery speaks of the state of exception by itself).
"In emergencies, architecture can tackle large-scale problems, but it needs to have the necessary time to act", explains the architect and urban planner Juan Herreros , author of numerous urban redefinition projects, and whose Herreros study now culminates the Museo de Munch in Oslo. Things you can help solve: "Adapt buildings that were already known to be empty (Ifema is a good example); organize emergency accommodation for health personnel; help people in need prepare their homes for the isolation of family members ... With Advancement would have been very easy. On the go it's more complex. "
Why Ifema is not the best solution
Ifema's is a good case study. Recently, health workers and unions denounced the deplorable conditions of the exhibition center to serve COVID-19 patients. Marta Parra, an architect specialized in health centers, already warned ICON Design: "Large open spaces are being prepared in which patients are distributed under the pavilion model, with corridors and beds on the sides, separated by curtains or partitions [when it is the case]. This system can be useful in other emergencies, but in contagion pandemics such as the coronavirus it does not guarantee the isolation of each patient, as they are all breathing the same air. "
It is not only an ineffective environment; It is also especially cold at a time when the sick cannot even be accompanied by family members. Ariadna Cantis believes that architects could contribute to humanizing spaces: "If there are congress centers that are temporarily becoming hospitals, we architects could work on them to make them more friendly. The same with the rehabilitation rooms that they are going to transform into ICU, because the patients who get there are very scared, and in this a hostile space does not help. "
Shared knowledge: basic guide to a safe emergency hospital
Unlike these large pavilions, the transformation of hotels is quick and allows much more control, explains Marta Parra , "by using one room per patient and having a greater separation guaranteed by the existing infrastructure. There is already much to be gained from four walls and a ceiling. In addition, in many hotels the air conditioning of the corridors is different from that of the rooms, which improves the insulation processes. "
In this sense, the American collective of architects Mass Design Group, specialized in architectures of health and emergency centers (SARS at the beginning of the century and the Ebola crisis, later), has decided to share its knowledge in a guide of conditions that should gather the centers of attention in cases of contagious infections. The manual descends to the smallest detail in this spreadsheet: materials, separations, ventilation systems, furniture, hygienic facilities, and even the number of wastebaskets, necessary to guarantee the cure, prevent the spread and protect the dignity of the patients.
Andrés Jaque , founder of the Office for Political Innovation study and director of the Advanced Architecture Design Program at Columbia University, goes beyond physical infrastructures. Contemporary architecture, he explains, works to transfer to digital spaces the political guarantees that the public space already had. "Therefore, it is a priority to address the way of describing the pandemic itself . It is frightening to see how, almost without exception, the media narrates this crisis as a competition between nations. The graphics that show the pandemic as a phenomenon compartmentalized by countries reinforce opportunism nationalist of politicians like Mark Rutte or Angela Merkel ", he defends. "It is imperative to give importance to the development of solidarity strategies symmetrical to the transversality of this pandemic."
What we have learned: the shared city
Despite all efforts, the response to the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic has, of necessity, been a patch.
"Given the magnitude of the problem, today, I see the contribution of difficult architecture, if not irrelevant," says José Miguel de Prada Poole, "mainly due to the current urban configuration and its growth in oil slick ." This simile refers to an urban growth that, although it does not occur continuously, does occupy the intermediate spaces as does a large oil stain, which tends to unite the different smaller drops that surround it.
José Miguel de Prada Poole proposes "a city with buildings connected to each other at different levels, so that the affected area could be delimited without prejudice to the neighboring areas or the life of the city itself"
For this reason, De Prada Poole considers that this crisis should make us "aware of the need to propose a new model of a city, with limited growth, in which Nature plays a leading role. A city with buildings connected to each other at different levels , from so that the affected area could be delimited without prejudice to the neighboring areas or the life of the city itself. Technically it is possible, although it would require urban planning regulations that would allow it. "
If there is a consensus lesson, it is the need to dilute public and private spaces. "We believed that we were going in the direction of isolating each person with their own screen, towards a system of individual cells ," recalls Iñaki Alday , dean of the Tulane School of Architecture. "However, this crisis is recovering the value of the community. The houses will have to incorporate different levels of shared spaces: for the residents of the landing, stair, block or street . The confinement has demonstrated the need to do gymnastics together , cooking, throwing parties, performing together, singing. "
Juan Herreros predicts that "traveling by bike or electric motorcycle will be the option of many to avoid congested public transport. But also, we have to change our notion of comfort and quality. Cities will have to choose : does Venice want to return to its putrid waters? "And so many others to their mortally polluted air? Is it really necessary to travel so much? Should mass tourism be considered, as some propose, a destructive and idiotic form of consumption?"
"If architecture provided security in the past, at this time it must take care, mitigate and repair," says Andrés Jaque . "Instead of walls, the architecture we need should facilitate solidarity . Something very simple: we need to increase health infrastructures, and dimension them to the scale of the crisis scenarios that we will have to live through. We also need effective infrastructures for assistance and dependent care. "
Living with the neighbors
The concept of common area also invades the house, understood as the private space. Carlos Arroyo, expert in housing innovation and sustainability, highlights the advantages of shared housing models , the often criticized cohousing . "Among its many virtues is the resilience that it provides to its inhabitants in situations such as today. Let's think of small but independent apartments, with generous and well-equipped common spaces."
When faced with quarantine, he adds, "the independence of the apartments is crucial so that each person or family can be isolated; and in the common area, those who have tested negative or outsiders can take on tasks that help the rest to cope with the confinement". It is precisely the type of coexistence that projects the most success in the future for those over 60 years - like these four friendly couples who built a custom-built building to retire -, the population group most affected today by COVID-19.
"Why don't we make all buildings have, for example, some recreation terraces, with shared recreational spaces, of cohabitation ? We are seeing these days how something as simple as a terrace can be a luxury that not everyone has "explains Luis Vidal , founder of Luis Vidal + architects.
Alberto Eltini influences the provision of infrastructures that allow us to face future epidemics: " Portable disinfection packs could be manufactured, like Decathlon's three-second tents, but instead obtaining a disinfection chamber to place in the hallway before entering your home. "
Bigger houses, higher roofs, and balconies
"Most of the people live in a very small amount of square meters, so clearly we were not prepared for a situation like this," says Teresa Sapey . "If we start from the definition of Mies Van de Rohe , who said that architecture is the true battlefield of the spirit, in these moments of uncertainty our spirit is trapped in the lamp of Aladdin."
If we rub it, another common battle appears between the architects: that the houses are bigger and more flexible. Eltini plans to return to one of Le Corbusier's ideas: "That everyone should have the right to a minimal home as a unit. This would avoid situations of confinement and dangerous coexistence, since mental health is essential in times of crisis."
This minimum unit should have measures that it proposes to be imposed in the Technical Building Code, the architects' bible. For example, "the ceilings below 2.40 meters border on the unhealthy," he diagnoses. We do not know if, due to the number of hours he has been looking at them these weeks, Sapey proposes that from now on, interior design also pay more attention to them: "Let's intervene in the ceilings.
"The balcony and terraces are essential," continues Eltini in line with his colleagues. "The bigger the better." Not to mention the workspaces. For Carlos Lamela , one of the immediate learnings these days is that teleworking was a real possibility: "The good that we have organized in a very short time has to make us reflect in the future to use fewer resources in transportation, work more from home and save us unnecessary meetings. "
It is not a question of building mansions, but much more flexible homes: "Changing spaces, capable of adapting to each situation, even the most extreme", projects Luis Vidal , who in fact has already put the idea into practice in the 2d-4d house for the Japanese company Sumitomo: "A family space that was modified, without technology, depending on the needs of each moment." Sapey agrees: "Today everything must be mobile in the house. The house must be like a boat on the storm wave, at every moment its structure changes, there is no interior or exterior, there is desire."
A decision in the forests of China affects the Madrid organization
But it is not only a matter of how it is designed and built, but also where and how much it is made. Iván López Munuera , on the one hand, fears that the current crisis will promote short-term and repressive solutions: "We will surely see a banal understanding of the epidemic that will materialize in architectures of confinement and isolation."
So, on the other hand, it proposes that we expand our field of vision and contemplate the entire natural environment. "The architectures that will be interesting in the future are those that understand that any intervention on the landscape has a determining influence on a vast geography. That, as we have seen, the decisions that are made on the forests of central China have repercussions on the organization of a city like Madrid. "
There are many things we don't know about the virus and how it will affect our lives in the future. But we can also harbor some certainties.
"We will have to learn again the value of the shared city," announces José María Ezquiaga . "At work, at home, in mobility. Learn the value that social networks have acquired as new public places. And dare to think again about the long term, about the climate emergency and the healthy future of our life in the city".
Or as Ariadna Cantis summarizes: "The city will never be the same, and the use and enjoyment of public space and the relationship between people will change forever." Let's be prepared.
José Miguel de Prada Poole, pioneer of pneumatic structures in Spain, is the 1975 National Prize for Architecture, and his ideas, like the orbital city, are still provocative today.
Ariadna Cantis, an architect from ETSAM, divides her activity between the dissemination of architecture, urban planning, research and curating. Since 2017 she is an advisor to Factoría Cultural, Vivero de Industrias Creativas.
Carlos Arroyo is director of Carlos Arroyo Architects, expert in housing innovation and sustainability, and professor of the Master's Degree in Architecture at the European University of Madrid
Juan Herreros is a Doctor of Architecture, Professor of Architectural Projects at the Madrid School of Architecture, and Full Professor at the GSAPP of Columbia University in New York. He holds the title of International Fellowship from the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and has a nomination for the Medal of Architecture from the US Academy of Arts and Letters.
Marta Parra is an architect from ETSAM. From her studio, Parra-Müller, of which she is a founding partner with Angela E. Müller, collaborates with the Ministry of Health and has specialized in the architecture of Maternity areas in health centers, with a humanizing design that they have already extended to other areas such as Oncology or ICU. They are pioneers in the application of Evidence Based Design (EBD).
Iñaki Alday is dean of the Tulane School of Architecture and founder of the Aldayjover Arquitectura y Paisajismo studio, with offices in Barcelona and New Orleans. World Bank consultant as an expert in urban planning of rivers and deltas. Co-founder of the Yamuna River Project (Actar Publishers 2018), a project to recover the Yamuna River, one of the most polluted in the world, in New Delhi (India).
José María Ezquiaga is an architect doctor and has a degree in Sociology and Political Science. National Urban Planning Award 2005, he has held various institutional positions as an expert in the field and has been dean of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) between 2015 and 2019.
Andrés Jaque is founder of the Office for Political Innovation study and director of the Advanced Architecture Design Program at Columbia University.
Luis Vidal is the founder of luis vidal + arquitectos, a study with more than 200 projects in his curriculum, including Terminal 2 at London Heathrow Airport (with more than 27 international awards) or the new Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital in Vigo .
Alberto Eltini, founding partner of the study El Departamento, has worked in various international studies, including Foster + Partners and Benoy. He is a Guest Jury at The Architectural Association in London and worked for the Cano-Lasso studio in Madrid.
Iván López Munera is an academic, critic and curator. Doctor in Art History from the Complutense University of Madrid and Master in Architecture from Princeton University, since 2015 he develops his thesis on the architecture of HIV / AIDS in the latter.
Teresa Sapey is the founder of the urbanism, architecture and interior design studio that bears her name, from which she works with numerous hotels, and who this year signed the VIP room at the ARCOMadrid fair.
Carlos Lamela is an architect for ETSAM and executive president of Estudio Lamela, which signs works such as Terminal 4 of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, the new Amsterdam-Schiphol terminal or the City of Real Madrid.