Design for better lives in a post-pandemic world — RG Group

Design for better lives in a post-pandemic world

COVID-19 has been the trigger for a huge wave of change in many areas of our lives. While this has been often incredibly challenging there have also been some positives, including the opportunity to rethink the way that many of us live and work. This is currently having a big impact on the world of design where there is a whole swathe of inspiration and planning happening to create better lives in a post-pandemic world. So, what kind of changes are we likely to see?

Changing design for the better

There’s no doubt that change is going to be something very individual but there are some common themes starting to emerge when it comes to the way that we approach our living and working spaces going forward:

• A return to more traditional floor planning. Over the past 12 months with so much of work and life taking place in the same space, open plan has not been a hit. Instead, those homes with more traditional, clearly delineated spaces have proven popular and this is going to be a big influence on design going forward.
• Partitioning and creating dedicated space. The simplest way to integrate more traditional floor planning, with a flexibility that could accommodate future changes, is using mobile partitioning and movable walls. It’s likely that we’re going to see much more of a move back to spaces that have one single, clear function (e.g. home office, workout space etc) as people want to avoid areas of their life merging together in their home. Mobile partitions have acoustic functions and can help to ensure that the right boundaries are in place.
• A shift to a fully functioning home office. Although working from home has become the dominant way of working in the past year, for many people this has simply meant a laptop at the kitchen table or sitting in bed and working. Now, we’re going to see much more focus on dedicated workspaces, something that is evidenced by the huge increase in sales of ergonomic furniture for the home. From lighting to seating and work surfaces, dedicated and productive home working space is going to be a priority.
• Health and wellness. We are all starting to look for ways to live better and stay healthy and that means a new emphasis on spaces that are sanctuaries and set up for comfort and calm. It’s also likely that integrated gym facilities are going to feature widely in design — to avoid a situation where future lockdowns restrict public gym access and prevent people from working out. We could even see a design that accommodates space for lockdown potential with isolation rooms that have their own facilities, such as a gym and a fridge.
• The move to outdoor living. Outdoor space became a huge asset during the pandemic as we were all restricted to our own immediate areas. This has triggered a trend towards creating more outdoor living options, whether those spaces are used passively — to look at — or more actively, to live in.

These are just some of the ways in which design is changing to create better lives in a post-pandemic world.

Originally published at https://rg-group.co.uk on August 26, 2021.