Post-Covid Workplace Study

User Research & Design THinking

I participated in a design research study investigating what the future workplace will look like in a post-covid society.

Objective

Create an architecture resource database to help users find new and unexpected tools for growth.

Team

ArchiResouce was a personal project that I designed and developed myself.

Audience

Architecture students and professionals who are looking for new design resources.

My Role

Architectural Designer

Tools

User Interviews in Google Docs
Affinity Mapping in Miro
Wireframing in Sketch and Figma
Prototyping in Figma
Visual Design in Figma
Implementation in Webflow

Takeaways

Successfully built a web app with hundreds of weekly users that was optimized based on user feedback.

Context

This study addresses holistic and broad ideas for new approaches to how office occupants interact in post-COVID 19 workplaces. How can architects adapt the design of spaces to address virus concerns while aspiring to beautiful human-centric architecture?

How will we design the new workplace?

Defining the Problem

Solutions are easy if you know the problem. The process of asking "Why?" and exploring the root of the problem is always the beginning of finding a solution. For this study we defined our problem by asking a series of essential questions:

Will people want to go back to work in buildings?
How will the architectural experience of public spaces in urban areas change?
How can we protect the safety of workers?
How will we redesign spaces without negatively impacting creativity, productivity, and team building?

These questions lead us to our problem statement:

How can we keep workers safe while encouraging them to come back to work in a well-regulated, secure, and enjoyable environment?

Early Ideation

After extensive research and review of CDC data, the team determined that air quality was key to preventing the spread of airborne illness. We used 50 Ivan Allen, a previous project, as a playground for developing ideas on how to solve the problem of air filtration in a multi-tenant office tower. Early on, we envisioned using the existing alternating atria on the office floors as a series of interlocking fresh-air atria that have their own ventilation systems.

One precedent building that we researched deeply was Manitoba Hydro Place in my hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. The passive ventilation systems in the building turned it into a self-regulating machine that heated and cooled itself with very little mechanical effort

Defined Goals

provide fresh, well-regulated air to all tenants
secure elevator lobbies from contaminated air
create enjoyable alternative circulation routes to promote social distancing.

Our
Solution

Much like our lungs, our idea was to create a filtration system that pulls fresh air through the building via cross-ventilation and exhales it through the other side of the building. The benefit of this is three-fold, as we are able to provide fresh air, prevent the spread of airborne illness, and save energy with passive ventilation. The idea would be accomplished by creating two-story "health pods" which act as self-contained air vessels. These health pods do not use recirculated air from other parts of the building - only fresh air.

Air in the atria is pulled from the other side of the building, creating a cross-ventilation effect to circulate air passively.

Health pods are interlocking up the center of every floor in the high-rise. They give every tenant access to fresh air.

Keeping Workers
Safe

In addition to our "health pod" concept, we researched other, more universal, methods to keep workers safe in our buildings