key: cord-336549-xjrrw0wr
authors: Megahed, Naglaa A.; Ghoneim, Ehab M.
title: Antivirus-built environment: lessons learned from covid-19 pandemic
date: 2020-06-24
journal: Sustain Cities Soc
DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2020.102350
sha: 
doc_id: 336549
cord_uid: xjrrw0wr

Before developing medications for an epidemic, one solution is to go back to the physical and built environment to reduce its impact. Epidemics have transformed our built environment because of the fear of infection. Consequently, architecture and urbanism after the Covid-19 epidemic will never be the same. Although the current global epidemic poses a challenge at all levels in the built environment, it will take time to develop an antivirus-enabled paradigm to reduce the potential risks or stop the virus from spreading. This study imagines what the antivirus-built environment looks like based on the lessons learned and the importance of designing a healthy and sustainable built environment. Many unanswered questions require further multidisciplinary studies. We aim to search for answers and learn from this forced experiment to add additional security layers to overcome future virus-like attacks.

COVID-19 affects physical health most directly and has alarming implications for emotional and social functioning, the coronavirus has proven that a disaster doesn't fight with a known opponent. The enemy can simply be invisible with devastating consequences (Goniewicz et al., 2020; Pfefferbaum and North, 2020) . The real world is fragile, and this virus is frighteningly causing massive disruptions across the globe (Budds, 2020; Saadat et al., 2020) . Moreover, the digital world is fragile regarding cyberattacks.

This could be a teachable moment to apply lessons from the cybersecurity world to protect our built environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus is quickly spreading and causes significant damage, mimicking the spread of computer viruses within a network (Kindervag, 2020) . In the digital world, it is common practice to design and incorporate solutions that can help overcome virus attacks; for every new generation, a new security layer is added to ensure the ever-mutating computer viruses do not harm the digital structure (Ahlefeldt, 2020) . Could policymakers, planners, and architects inspired by the digital world learn from its cybersecurity to make our built environment more resistant to the virus? Could we design and build our cities to stop the virus from spreading? If so, could we install an antivirus-built environment ready to help in the protection from coronavirus or other pandemics?

Infectious disease has already transformed our places through architecture, design, and urban planning.

Previously, many trends in architecture and urbanism that we see today were derived from similar measures taken before to ensure the health, hygiene, and comfort of urban residents. Our built environment has always exhibited the capacity to evolve after the crisis (Chang, 2020; Dejtiar, 2020;  Muggah and Ermacora, 2020). This study encourages the search for suitable design ideas, trends, and planning theories to provide the required protection from virus attacks and continue to add more layers in the defense system of our built environment. To cope with this pandemic, professionals in architecture, urban planning sectors, and design agencies have already switched their focus to visualize J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f the post-pandemic era. However, there is inadequate research conducted to imagine how the antivirusbuilt environment would look. To address this gap, this study reviews architecture and urban story developments from the past centuries. We then review research areas affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight their related questions. We then analyze the social distancing and quarantine as a design problem in the post-pandemic era. Subsequently, some lessons learned from the pandemic are presented to visualize and introduce the study's vision about the antivirus-built environment.

During pandemics, the form has always followed the fear of infection, just as much as the function (Ellin, 1999) . From interiors to city planning, our built environment is shaped by diseases. Previously, to minimize the risk of infectious diseases, people redesigned interior design, architecture, cities, and infrastructure. Considering historical events of the last two centuries, the architecture and urban story includes several developments.

In the 14th century, the bubonic plague motivated the fundamental urban improvements of the Renaissance. Cities cleared overcrowded living quarters, expanded their margins, developed early quarantine facilities, and opened large public spaces. In the 20th century, infectious disease was one of the drivers of urban renewal. Modernist architects saw design as a cure to the sickness of overcrowded cities, where tuberculosis, typhoid, polio, and Spanish flu breakouts encouraged urban planning, slum clearance, tenement reform, and waste management (Chang, 2020; Lubell, 2020).

During the industrial era, cholera and typhoid influenced the sanitary reform movement. These epidemics contributed to developing water and sewage systems to fight the pathogens, eventually leading to a sanitary innovation and required the streets to be straighter, smoother, and wider to install underground pipe systems. Furthermore, the third plague pandemic in 1855 changed the design of everything from drainpipes to door thresholds and building foundations (Budds, 2020; Klaus, 2020;

Wainwright, 2020).

The wipe-clean esthetic of modernism can be partially attributed to tuberculosis. The modern architectural designs were inspired by an era of purity of form, strict geometries, modern materials, and a rejection of ornamentation. Modernist architects designed these curative environments as cleansed (physically and symbolically) from disease and pollution. Beyond their esthetic appeal, these features embodied modernist preoccupations with the healing effects of light, air, and nature. These buildings included large windows, balconies, flat surfaces that would not collect dust, and white paint, emphasizing the appearance of cleanliness (Budds, 2020; Chang, 2020). Against this background, the current health crisis should develop our built environment to increase the security layers that help to J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f prevent the spread of infections and diseases. In this context, there are multiple areas of research needed regarding COVID-19.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the fast-spreading COVID-19 as a pandemic, citizens around the globe hastened to go home. This global pandemic significantly influenced our personal and professional lives and has a direct bearing upon the very foundations of urban planning and architecture theory and practice (Allam and Jones, 2020; Haleem et al., 2020; Saadat et al., 2020) .

Consequently, the pandemic has led to questions of how architects and planners could present and install antivirus-related ideas or update the existing spaces, as well as at what stage can the pandemic affect our physical and built environment. To extend the scope of research needed from the academic community, Table 1 reviews certain required research areas affected by COVID-19 and highlights their related questions. Professional and extensive research is required on all levels and scales in these areas to prevent the virus from spreading. The answers to these questions could help in predicting the postpandemic style and visualizing the required antivirus system. 

In the absence of a specific vaccine to of the coronavirus, physical distancing and the lockdown of the 

Since most humans spend most of their daily lives inside the built environment, it is essential to 

Based on the potential transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and the required measures, several competitions, conferences, and leagues have been cancelled or postponed. The coronavirus has motivated authorities to restrict access to most public spaces and large shopping areas. This pandemic could fundamentally change the way they operate in the future and requires further analysis (Honey-Roses et al., 2020). Architects, planners, and built environment professionals are keen to examine many social and spatial implications to generate new patterns and configurations of use (Paital, 2020; Salama, 2020 problems and challenges in all building types and urban spaces as illustrated in Figure 1 . The pandemic of COVID-19 has caused serious consequences that can be an opportunity to review individual and collective choices and priorities. Most architecture today shows evidence of how humans have responded to infectious diseases by redesigning our physical spaces. Thus, social distancing could change the design and planning process (Budds, 2020; Chang, 2020), specifically with the increased acceptance of distance learning, online shopping, and the cultural connection of online entertainment.

The use of media for information sharing, and webinars for sharing knowledge and expertise have seen According to the affected lifestyles, the increased reliance on digital channels in the built environment may endure long after the pandemic and affect in every design and urban aspects. Humanity is facing a global crisis, perhaps the greatest of our generation. Many measures adopted during the emergency will become part of daily life, changing habits, and behaviors, they may be a positive or negative intervention in architecture and urban planning approaches. Household size. A big household, large, or extended families will have a higher chance to bring the virus home (Saadat et al., 2020 ). This will need special consideration in design solutions to prevent infection.

Social distancing level. Working from home might reduce social contact but is only available to some people focused on jobs linked to a higher socioeconomic status. Moreover, stay-at-home regulations would be more than a challenge for those who live in smaller and crowded houses or without outside spaces (Saadat et al., 2020) . forced to stay and work from home, post-pandemic house and office spaces will witness a great transformation because we will be more aware of the functionality of our homes and workspaces in an interestingly new approach. Some of these transformations are reviewed in following sections.

The pandemic has brought a greater sense of appreciation for our homes. People need houses that can effectively provide social isolation and offer protection from viruses and infections. The expectation is that even after the quarantine period, more people will work from home. Consequently, the future of 

While it is uncertain how much change will follow COVID-19, mechanisms increasing its spread will not be forgotten or ignored (Priday, 2020) . The pandemic has highlighted the lack of how we manage our built environment and presented certain lessons from this forced experiment. In this context, how should architects, planners, and policymakers react and learn? Beyond helping to design medical spaces limiting the spread of infections (Acuto, 2020; Betsky, 2020), the pandemic will allow them to reset and reshape our built environment. However, the time to reset and reshape our built environment is now, and not after the next pandemic. This study analyzes the lessons learned based on two approaches, namely, look step back to nature and look step forward to advanced technology.

A key lesson that we are going to learn is the requirement to return to nature with its healing effects.

Although the situation is still unfolding, the COVID-19 pandemic has already highlighted the importance of certain design concepts and reassessed fundamental assumptions in urban and architecture approaches.

To accommodate work from home situations, we could even reexamine old urban typologies. Many urban approaches might increase the protection and defense system of our cities and avoid high density and overcrowding. Policymakers and planners should use the current crisis to review planning theories and, based on the results, they should take a step back in searching about how past cities are structured. 

Previously, many architecture approaches were related and increased the healthy spaces of our buildings and enhanced sustainability.

Self-sufficient strategies. In future, a high priority will be placed on self-sufficient buildings and lifestyles (Ali et al., 2012; Greer, 2009; Priday, 2020) . In addition to all the energy-efficient strategies with heating and cooling systems, architects might inspire additional methods of thinking concerning water supply and food production.

Refocusing on green spaces. We require physical interaction with living plants for our mental health,

and to grow what we eat to reduce risk, specifically during self-isolation (Constable, 2020; Makhno, 2020) . Consequently, planting our gardens, terraces, and implementing green roof systems have multiple advantages for sustainability (Hui, 

To receive the maximum benefits from the previous approaches, the antivirus-enabled paradigm requires advanced technology in the construction sector and a tool to quicken the pace of digital transformation.

This approach requires using techniques outside the mainstream to secure our built environment by J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f running alternatives, exploring, and inspiring new ways of constructing more sustainable and safe buildings.

The post-pandemic emphasizes the importance of look step forward of the innovations in construction techniques that speed the creation of emergency architecture.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge for healthcare systems internationally.

Medical facilities and their human resources are usually overwhelmed (Scarfone et al., 2011; Robbins et al., 2020) . The sheer scale of the pandemic puts enormous stress, most countries built field and temporary hospitals in a matter of a few weeks or reused other building types and spaces to add thousands of beds. Table 2 reviews the most construction strategies used in constructed additional healthcare systems to prevent further COVID-19 infection. The hospital designed to be the quickest response to an immediate care center. A 1,000-square-meter structure prepared to see up to 80 COVID-19 patients daily. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco Bay, USA The hospital sets up two outdoor tents to prep for possible influx of COVID-19 patients which employed as triage and emergency room extensions, waiting and treatment areas.

Adaptive reuse. This strategy is a sensitive and sustainable approach to create emergency facilities.

During a pandemic, sports facilities, parking lots, and other buildings are converting into medical facilities and temporary hospitals. There will be a requirement for more efficient, effective, and flexible reuse plans for future crises (Lubell, 2020) . This strategy is beneficial when integrated with other advanced technologies in the construction sector.

Lightweight and adaptable structures. When responding to the pandemic, lightweight and adaptable structures are often preferable for their speed and portability. Designers are developing and assembling these temporary structures to create field hospitals that can be easily transported and erected for COVID-19 patients (Constable, 2020; Lubell, 2020) . 

The global pandemic has forced us into an entirely new world and has increased digital transformation in all our activities. After the crisis, we will have entered a new digital normal. In a few months, the pandemic has offered virtual and augmented reality alternatives, which are expected to continuously increase (Gracy, 2020; Muggah and Ermacora, 2020).

Ability to work from home. As a lesson learned, this pandemic brought to light the possible reduction of air pollutant emissions by increasing expand remote working. During the quarantine, most people have been forced to work from home (Nakada and Urban, 2020). More consideration will be given to the arrangement of the workplace at home. The spatial organization will change. It will be a separate room with large windows, blackout curtains, and comfortable furniture. It will be technically equipped, and sound insulated (Allam and Jones, 2020; Capolongo et al., 2020). While working from home is a benefit many employees value and reduces pollution, the long-term impact is unclear and requires further investigation.

Artificial intelligence and touchless technologies. Automation, voice technology, and facial recognition-based in artificial intelligence could influence post-pandemic architecture. With 80% of infectious diseases transmitted by touching polluted surfaces, touchless technology could become a new interface and remove the requirement for physically pushing or touching a surface. Post-pandemic principles search for more contactless pathways, such as lifts being called from a smartphone, avoiding the need to press any buttons, and doors to open automatically (Molla, 2020; Wainwright, 2020) . These technologies could include other programs to both control space temperature and automatically clean it J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f to kill harmful organisms, viruses, and bacteria. Although there is an added cost, it might be an amenity that will gain popularity to be integrated into future buildings (Kashdan, 2020; Makhno, 2020 ).

One positive impact of the current pandemic is the time it offers to the built environment professionals to reflect on past events and learn what can be improved for future responses (Goniewicz et al., 2020) .

Although pandemics have long been catastrophic, they have forced architecture and city planning to cope with it. Covid-19 might have similar effects on architecture and urban planning developments (Budds, 2020; Chang, 2020; Saadat et al., 2020) . Life after the pandemic will never be the same; values, lives, and habits will change, and our architecture will change under that influence. In all these circumstances, we might enter a completely post-pandemic style in which form follows fear of infection.

Cities are currently being tested to the extreme with the pandemic and multiple questions are arising in terms of how cities are planned and managed. Its impact is showing the extent to which each city can function, or not, especially during times of crisis (Lubell, 2020; Wahba and Vapaavuori, 2020) . Our built environment is not designed or built to effectively help limit the effects of pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are learning fast and there are already lessons worth learning and remembering. The pandemic will not last forever, but our response to it will shape our future built environment (Ahlefeldt, 2020; Novakovic, 2020) .

The significance of adding human health as one of the sustainability development goals can be seen through the current pandemic. From a conceptual perspective, adding human health as the fourth pillar to the overall definition of sustainability is a logical step (Hakovirta and Denuwara, 2020). Many architecture and urban approaches might increase the protection of our cities and avoid overcrowding.

In normal times, there might be many attributes attempted by the built environment to achieve sustainability. The pandemic's influence in the densest areas raises questions about sustainable development and fundamental assumptions of past theories. However, the future is still unclear; perhaps we hope to see a shift towards a greener, smarter, and a more sustainable built environment.

Alternatively, distance communication and digital transformation could change our long-term habits and dramatically cut traffic and pollution. What if we harnessed telecommuting and digital city strategy as a way of social distancing and to help employees and citizens achieve work-life balance? Based on the feasibility of working continuing remotely after the pandemic passes, our cities might require fewer spaces for highways and parking lots. In this case, we could recover these spaces for use as safe cycling and walking networks. It sounds utopic but this vision might encourage people to take their bikes to work and give more space to pedestrians (Gonzalez, 2020; Muggah and Ermacora, 2020). Postpandemic design and planning strategies must reflect this change. The right design and planning strategies now could help to position our built environment in the post-pandemic era. However, there are many other social effects beyond the pandemic; however, the long-term impact is unclear, requiring J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f further studies. Let us hope we do not encounter this scenario; however, if it comes again, at least we can understand the risks and be better prepared in the prevention and quickly react in mitigation.

As shown from the lessons and the complexity of the pandemic, it is no longer safe to solely rely on a strategy to protect our architecture and urbanism. Instead, we must install an antivirus-built environment that incorporates a multi-layered approach of protection into its defense system. Architects and planners should design our built environment such as to stop the virus from spreading by creating an antivirusenabled paradigm. This paradigm must improve new tools, options, and strategies that are more flexible, holistic, and responsive to better address the pandemic response at all levels and scales from interior design to city planning. Based on the lessons learned from this crisis, Figure 2 shows the proposed vision about how nature and advanced technology approaches help in visualizing antivirus-built environments to stop the virus from spreading. However, selecting the best antivirus strategy depends on many factors, posing new challenges to choose that could be used or planned as long-term reforms. We must be proactive, not reactive, and continue to update this antivirus-enabled paradigm and install new approaches within its framework. Many questions still require further multidisciplinary studies. This study does not present answers; it originates insights for areas where future research will be critically required to update the proposed vision. The proposed vision in this study does not have an expiration date, when the Covid-19 pandemic ended, most of healthy architecture and urban approaches could be applicable to the pandemics to come. We could imagine all housing buildings as self-sufficient, independent and healthy neighborhoods and making smart use of the available technologies. It is crucial to make urban areas more resilient to emergencies response, to face epidemics and other possible future emergencies of every kind.

J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f

There is no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has helped us predict what post-pandemic architecture and urbanism might look like. Although we are not going to overhaul how we have been building architecture and cities before, based on the current circumstances and emergency measures, we should review our design strategies and planning theories. We could more effectively use healthy design and planning strategies to face pandemics and create a less pullulated, more sustainable architecture, and urbanism in general. Moreover, if we harnessed the security layers not only to prevent ever-mutating virus attacks but a healing approach that could be implemented in the post-pandemic era, it could help build a sustainable environment. Therefore, is this transformation in our physical and built environment a temporary reaction or the new normal? With spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional questions will undoubtedly arise, and additional security layers should be added to update an antivirus-enabled paradigm. This study does not present answers; it only provides insights for areas where future research will be critically required to extend the scope of research required. Based on the lessons learned from this crisis, this study introduces a vision about the required antivirus-built environment that can be updated to stop the virus spreading or mitigate its impacts. However, selecting the best antivirus strategy depends on many factors such as the abilities and capabilities of each community and environment. The global pandemic has highlighted the limitations of how we manage our built environment regarding how we should design, build, and run our built environment; however, it has given us a chance to learn.

Nevertheless, certain questions remain such as will we regard these unique lessons? If so, we should think more specifically about the benefits of this forced experimentation and implement further developments to select which could be used or planned as long-term reforms from a transformative viewpoint. In this context, the pandemic increased the requirement for policymakers, planners, and architects to think more out of the box, trying to reshape our physical spaces, and reset the existing build environment or develop more ideas to face future virus attacks. These changes give us a glimpse at how our cities could change for the better, and the worse, in the long-term. However, it is too early to judge how responses to COVID-19 will affect design and urbanism theories. These results call for urgent efforts to further explore our built environment and not wait for another pandemic to serve as a reminder.

This approach must be parallel to other sustainable approaches embracing not impinging natural resources and not harming our environment. If we can manage that, our present architecture and cities will continue to serve us well. However, the post-pandemic era will see multiple challenges that require a better understanding of COVID-19 and its socioeconomic effects on society. The future remains uncertain and thus future multidisciplinary studies are required.

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The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.