With a global pandemic affecting all of our lives at the moment, NGP Architects are taking a look at what the future may look like for us at home, work and in our free time.
This period has forced us to assess what our values are, and will certainly lead to a change in our daily lives and habits. But how will things change once we are able to get back to ‘normal life’.
In housing, we predict a rethink on high-rise housing: built to accommodate as many people as possible, health and hygiene are not high on the priority list when thinking about this type of housing. During the lockdown we have seen a real need for access to open areas and green spaces; this is also an issue with high-rise housing and is certainly a core value that we hope will be in the forefront of our minds when we begin work on new housing projects.
Before the pandemic, housing was considered more for safety and security but with the lockdown we have been forced to spend much longer periods indoors. In the future we may see houses being seen as an escape from more than just viruses, but as an escape from urbanisation and from the chaos that work can bring.
We may see lots of projects springing up in the coming years, looking to improve the living space so that it can be a true sanctuary from the sometimes challenging outside world.
There is also the obvious change that may occur after lockdown ends, in that many of us may want to continue working from home. There are many workers who were previously told that their jobs could not be completed from home and are now finding that it is possible after all. Companies and employees will be able to have a much more flexible arrangement and we could see a sharp rise in the number of home offices being built, either by transforming an existing space or by extending. No longer a desk in a corner of an unused room with a lamp for lighting, we certainly expect to see some upgrades to home working spaces in the months following the end to this pandemic.
If an extension or renovation may be something you are interested in, we have a handy guide to what to expect here.
Another big change in the home may be an end to open plan spaces. Currently we step in off the street and bring the outside world straight into our homes. We expect to see a return of vestibules and cloak rooms, somewhere to rid yourself of dirty clothes, shoes and leave them outside of the living areas.
We predict that we might see an increase in the number of people looking at self-sufficient homes: from Air/Water Source Heat Pumps to provide energy, rainwater collection systems for water, and a return for fireplaces for heating. More complex smart home systems with air and water filtration may feature too as people try to improve their homes. We are already seeing an increase in the number of homes being built to ‘Passivhaus’standards and this may become far more commonplace for new-builds in the UK.
It’s not just at home where we may see some big changes. With many of us now working from home, it may be that offices have to do more to win us back! The changes to open plan style offices with cramped conditions will be obvious, to avoid the transferring of viruses and bacteria, but we may see better working environments and NGP have been working with clients who were ahead of the trend here, trying to improve their office spaces before we knew what a pandemic even looked like.
These are just some of the ways that we at NGP think that life might change, but we’re always interested in ideas. It would be great for you to share your ideas with us, you can let us know on any of these: