Image by Sara Kennedy
What has it really been like in architectural practice, education, and research during the pandemic? The way we work changed overnight in 2020. In this article, we share insights from Architecture + Health students, researchers, practitioners, and colleagues.
Previously our workdays involved a variety of formal and informal interactions with our clients, in person as well as via phone, voice message, email, text, or video conference. In-person interaction and on-site visits have been replaced by digital communication. This has changed the nature of communication for everyone sensitive to the need to prevent zoom fatigue and engage clients meaningfully. However, in the absence of in-person interactions, there is still the need to build and maintain relationships. The challenge is to communicate effectively and succinctly while also providing value and building trust with the client. Deborah Wingler, PhD, Health and Research lead at HKS in Dallas, TX says “We need to be really thoughtful about what information we are giving and how we are giving it. Maybe before COVID we would just send a quick email or message. Now it might be better to engage with a personal call or video chat to try to maintain personal connections.” Deborah observed that busy health care clients today often appreciate the shorter and more efficient meetings that can be held virtually in less time than larger in-person sessions.
As a Gen-Xer who did hand-drafting in design studio for my Bachelor of Architecture degree, one of the biggest changes I noticed with the transition to digital tools in the early 2000’s was that students were less able to share their work and discuss ideas with others. Returning to school 25 years later, my first semester pre-pandemic was very different from the undergrad experience. Students worked on their projects on their computers and their work was not as easy to see, even though the professors tried to impose a “work in studio” rule. The workflow and desk crits now used in design studio for Clemson Architecture + Health students is on a group Zoom using Miro Boards and/or live shared screens to navigate within a digital domain with design software (Sketch Up, Revit, Rhino, etc.). This allows students to see each other’s work and hear the feedback that others receive. The increased use of virtual tools to share work in progress has facilitated some of the peer-to-peer learning that I have been missing. Hopefully, in the future we can maintain this way of collaborating and sharing with digital tools while also building the connections and camaraderie that time spent together in studio engenders.
Dr. Anjali Joseph, a faculty member in the Architecture + Health program has responded to the challenge of promoting student engagement and learning in her virtual seminar course by ‘flipping the classroom.’ In the past, she or other industry experts would deliver a lecture on various topics related to healthcare policy and the built environment during the 2.5-hour class. Now part of the lecture is recorded in advance and students spend most of the time in class actively discussing the topic. Dr. Joseph is also using Miro as a way of capturing student reactions to different issues which helps facilitate discussion. This format makes for a more engaging virtual classroom. She feels she will continue to use this format even after we return to in-person instruction.
Research in healthcare design often involves facility visits to observe healthcare teams at work or to collect data through interviews, surveys and focus groups. Since the start of the pandemic, on-site data collection has been impossible. However, healthcare design researchers in academia as well as practice have adapted by using virtual reality and online surveys or by training healthcare staff to collect data on their behalf. For example, for our deep dive study on anesthesia workspace design, we decided to use video data (collected for another project prior to the pandemic) to understand the nuances of anesthesia medication administration activities and interactions with equipment and space. Architecture firms are increasingly using virtual reality platforms to ‘mock-up’ spaces so clients can experience different design options from various perspectives and provide feedback. During the pandemic, these virtual mock-up evaluations have replaced simulation-based evaluation of physical mock-ups. Virtual mock-ups are challenging in terms of being able to involve multiple individuals in team-based tasks, and they lack the tactile cues that a physical mock-up provides. However, VR has become a viable short-term solution for envisioning proposed spaces. Perhaps the pandemic will result in greater advancements in virtual reality applications that support user engagement in the design process. Architecture firms are also developing detailed research protocols for data collection that can be reliably implemented by staff at healthcare facilities. For example, staff could be recruited to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation using existing tools. Researchers around the world are working to adapt qualitative and quantitative research methods to pandemic conditions. You can read more about these efforts here – (https://rmsig.aib.world/conducting-research-during-covid-19/)
While remote interviews are not new, the way in which communication is changing employment is incomplete without a discussion of the physical work environment. A firm’s office tells us a great deal about its values, efficiency and aesthetic sensibility. The irony of interviewing for a job online is that even though you make every attempt to appear as professional as possible, inevitably a cat walks across the camera, a dog starts barking, or a child enters the room unexpectedly. These informal interactions help us relate to one another on a more personal level, but they alter the formal social norms of the office environment. A classmate noted that trying to interview in person during the pandemic was “weird.” The strangeness of masked and socially distanced interactions creates an awkwardness between strangers that lacks the warmth of a handshake and a smile. In a way, Zoom calls allow this boundary to be crossed, assuming people can sufficiently relax and be themselves on camera, which takes time.
At the Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing we are using Slack for group communication and collaboration during the pandemic. It started as an experiment to see if we could replace the ‘conversation by the coffee machine’ with something more digital and informal than email. Having the record of communication in a group forum helps with project management and maintains a strong organizational culture. Personally, I find that the “randomfunstuff” channel in our Slack group provides an outlet for informal engagement. The Slack channel helps us maintain a sense of connectedness, especially since many of us are students who live near campus, but spend most days alone in quarantine. We use the “randomfunstuff” channel to upload pictures of where we live and work, share personal art projects, funny stories, images, and to share birthday and holiday wishes.
During my remote summer work with KMD in California, I enjoyed some firm-initiated photo contests that helped us get to know each other, including best WFH (Work-From-Home) footwear (ranging from funny character slippers to furry heels), and best WFH companion (adorable children, cats, puppies, and even a spider web).
Overall, digital tools have facilitated better remote coordination in all scenarios, but they have left many of us with a feeling that something is missing. There is another level of relating to each other that occurs in what sociologist Ray Oldenburg calls the third place. (link: https://www.pps.org/article/roldenburg). It has pushed us to find the maximum potential of remote and work-from-home communication. Perhaps the most important lesson learned is that working from home helps us to better understand how a more diverse physical environment enriches our lives.
