The COVID-19 Challenge: Responding to a Post-COVID Built Environment with the aim of ‘Build Back Better’ .

This Commonwealth CPD session considers the multifaceted impacts of COVID-19 on the built environment and offers insights on how built environment professionals can use this moment as an opportunity to effect positive and transformative change. With over 164 million recorded cases and 3.4 million deaths at the time of recording, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities, particularly affecting poor communities in densely populated urban areas. The session builds on previous discussions about capacity gaps, food systems, conservation, climate change and inequality to reflect on practical responses. Expert perspectives from medicine, architecture, water and sanitation, urban planning, emergency response and UN-Habitat demonstrate that the virus will remain with us for years, requiring fundamental rethinking of how we design living spaces, workplaces, public spaces, and urban systems to protect vulnerable populations while building resilience for future shocks.

Outline 

• Framing presentation by Dr. David Nabarro on food systems, the ongoing nature of the pandemic, virus transmission dynamics, the critical importance of local responses, and the need for design thinking to enable people to be the solution through adequate space for isolation, ventilation, and access to food and water
• UIA COVID-19 Information Hub perspective on infection control in spaces, adaptability and flexibility in building design, ventilation systems in medical facilities, and the need to embed health and safety as fundamental design principles in built environment education
• WaterAid India presentation on vulnerable populations (informal sector workers, urban poor, migrants), the critical role of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, demographic shifts toward smaller towns, and the need to plan cities for those most vulnerable rather than ignoring their existence
• International Growth Center cities perspective distinguishing density from overcrowding, the importance of investing in water and sewerage infrastructure, planning ahead of expansion, appropriate land use regulations, and avoiding temporary solutions that lock in unfavorable patterns
• Emergency architecture perspective on the global, complex, politicized nature of the pandemic, the vulnerability of poor communities, disaster risk reduction preparedness, and the importance of global collaboration platforms
• UN-Habitat perspective on how COVID-19 has amplified inequality, reminded us of the importance of adequate housing and basic services, highlighted the critical role of local governments, and demonstrated that pandemic recovery must align with climate action and SDG achievement

Learning Outcomes

The sessions learning outcomes were:

• Understand that COVID-19 is a long-term challenge requiring fundamental changes to how we design and operate built environments, as the virus will continue mutating, variants will emerge that may bypass vaccine protection, and the pandemic is nowhere near over
• Recognize that the pandemic’s impacts are most severe for poor communities living in overcrowded conditions without adequate space for isolation, access to clean water and sanitation, or ability to maintain physical distance in homes or workplaces
• Learn that people are the solution to COVID and that everything built environment professionals do must focus on enabling people to protect themselves through adequate living space, isolation facilities, ventilation, access to water and food, and dignified housing conditions
• Understand the critical distinction between density and overcrowding recognizing that compact cities offer economic, environmental and service provision benefits, but that overcrowding (lack of floor area per person) creates vulnerability
• Appreciate the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure as fundamental to pandemic response, disease prevention, and human dignity, requiring investment comparable to historical Western commitments to these basic services
• Recognize the need to plan for secondary cities and towns as demographic shifts show smaller urban centers becoming growth drivers, offering opportunities to plan ahead of expansion rather than retrofitting inadequate infrastructure
• Learn that cities cannot function without informal sector workers and the urban poor yet planning typically proceeds as if they don’t exist, requiring a fundamental shift to center their needs in urban planning and design
• Understand the importance of adaptability and flexibility in building design, including repurposing spaces for emergency use, modular construction, mixed land use, and designing for multiple functions rather than single purposes
• Appreciate the critical role of ventilation in preventing airborne disease transmission, requiring integration of public health expertise with built environment design, particularly in medical facilities, schools, workplaces and dense spaces
• Recognize that pandemic recovery must align with climate action and SDG achievement as there is no divergence between these agendas—investments in public transport, green space, public space, sustainable buildings, and adaptation infrastructure serve both purposes

Core Curriculum Topics

• Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  This session fundamentally addresses how COVID-19 has exposed the critical importance of designing for health and safety as a fundamental principle rather than an add-on consideration. It covers infection control, ventilation systems, space for isolation, overcrowding prevention, and the integration of public health surveillance into built environment design.
• Sustainable Architecture
  Social Sustainability and Resilience – The session extensively addresses social equity, access to basic services, designing for vulnerable populations, resilience to future shocks, and the interconnection between pandemic recovery and climate action, demonstrating that sustainable development cannot be separated from health and wellbeing.
• People, Places & Communities 
  The session emphasizes understanding diverse urban contexts, the needs of informal sector workers and marginalized communities, the role of secondary cities, urban-rural linkages, food systems, and how built environment decisions create or reduce vulnerability for different population groups.

SDG Learning Outcomes

• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  The session centrally addresses making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, with particular focus on adequate housing, access to safe public spaces, sustainable transport systems, resilient infrastructure, and protecting vulnerable populations in urban areas.
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
  Multiple speakers emphasize water, sanitation and hygiene as fundamental to pandemic response and disease prevention, noting that lack of access to handwashing facilities and adequate sanitation infrastructure creates COVID vulnerability for poor communities.
• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
  The session addresses health infrastructure, disease prevention, the social determinants of health, health inequalities, and the integration of public health considerations into urban planning and building design.
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  Throughout the session, speakers emphasize how COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities between and within cities, countries and regions, with disproportionate impacts on poor communities, informal sector workers, migrants and marginalized populations.
• SDG 13: Climate Action
  The session demonstrates alignment between pandemic response and climate action, including investments in public transport, green infrastructure, public space, building retrofit, local food systems, and nature-based solutions that address both agendas simultaneously.

The following CPD questions forms part of the learning guide for this session. As different Institutions of Architecture across the Commonwealth have different CPD reporting requirements, it is suggested that you retain a copy of your responses to these questions for your records.

1. Pandemic Preparedness: How does your current practice incorporate design principles that would enable buildings and spaces to respond to future pandemics or health crises? What changes would be needed?
2. Vulnerable Populations: Do your projects adequately consider the needs of informal sector workers, migrants, and low-income communities? How might you ensure these populations are centered rather than ignored in planning processes?
3. Density vs. Overcrowding: How do you currently approach density in your projects? What strategies could you employ to achieve compact urban form while preventing overcrowding and ensuring adequate space per person?
4. Basic Services Integration: How do you integrate water, sanitation, ventilation, and public health considerations into your design process? Are these treated as fundamental requirements or as technical add-ons?
5. Adaptability and Flexibility: To what extent do your buildings and spaces allow for adaptability to changing uses, emergency repurposing, or future modifications? How might you increase flexibility in your designs?
6. Climate-Health Nexus: How can you ensure your projects simultaneously address pandemic resilience and climate action rather than treating these as separate or competing priorities?

To discover more about this project, please feel free to visit:

• https://covid.uia-architectes.org/
• https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/Streets_for_Pandemic_Response_Recovery_Full_20-09-24.pdf
• https://theurbanproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/COVID-19-Street-Rebalancing-Guide-EN.pdf