Crises helped shape modern architecture
May 15, 2020
By Brent Bellamy, Associate + Creative Director
Originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press
Modern architecture was born out of a global health crisis. With tuberculosis crippling cities in Europe and North America in the early 20th century, gleaming white medical facilities called sanitoriums were designed to provide patients access to sunlight and fresh air, the only known treatment for the disease. This inspired architects to use the same ideas to promote mental and physical health in all new buildings.


“Touchless” technology can help with reducing virus spread by incorporating such things as automatic doors and sinks, voice-activated elevators, hands-free light switches and temperature controls. Less technical touch-reducing solutions include designing washrooms in public buildings so they don’t need doors, and replacing round doorknobs that require a full grasp with lever openers.
This and other high-tech solutions such as medical screening technologies to protect people at airports, sporting events and other large gatherings, will likely see accelerated development and incorporation into everyday architecture in the coming years.

It is unlikely that many buildings will be designed specifically to accommodate the worst-case scenario of a global pandemic, but the COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the importance of adaptability in our buildings. Rooms in our homes have suddenly become offices, hospital parkades are now testing centres, and school gymnasiums are becoming temporary intensive care units.
Over the long term, the role of architecture in the new reality of a post-COVID-19 world might take inspiration from the Modernists of a century ago. A renewed focus on the ability for the built environment to affect our physical and mental health would be like preventive medicine to make us stronger and more resilient in times of crisis.

Once again, we can look to health-care design for inspiration. An evolving theory called salutogenic design has been emerging from hospital architecture. Simply put, salutogenic design aims to build structures that make people healthier and happier. Like the Modernist architecture of the 20th century, it returns to the use of sunlight, natural ventilation and views to nature as ways to improve health and well-being.

In health-care settings, studies have shown that access to these elements results in significant reductions in a patient’s average length of stay and need for medication. It has been found to lower stress levels and depression rates and promote faster recoveries.
On some level, these health effects can be realized in all building types if we promote similar design principles — large windows to allow the deep penetration of sunlight, providing views that connect people to their surroundings, and a move away from sealed buildings and mechanical air conditioning to allow natural ventilation with fresh air.

Salutogenic design also promotes mental health through social cohesion and interaction, incorporating welcoming spaces for meeting and human connection, familiar spaces for orientation and comfort, and quiet spaces for focus and restoration.
Building planning can incorporate the salutogenic approach by encouraging building users to engage in a more active lifestyle. A large central staircase might invite people to avoid the elevator. Showers and change rooms might promote biking or walking. In office space, strategically locating washrooms, copy rooms and lunchrooms can encourage people to make short walks throughout the day.
Building location and exterior design can create interesting and welcoming pedestrian environments that invite people to walk more.

By increasing the opportunities for physical mobility and exercise, such design decisions can help prevent chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, improving our immune systems and our ability to meet the challenge of a public crisis.
Architecture has the ability to reshape the world we live in after the COVID-19 pandemic. As architects did a century ago, we can learn from health-care design and incorporate new ideas into our everyday architecture, to promote mental and physical well-being, protect us from pathogen spread, and prepare us for the challenges we will face in the future.