Is this an apocalypse? — the covid-19 pandemic and Its lessons for architecture
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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en
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256
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Abstract
In its biblical meaning, an apocalypse is a revelation, resulting in significant destruction or change. Since Covid-19 spread globally, voices from various fields have been speculating whether the world has entered into a new era and an ‘awakening’ is happening. The Covid-19 pandemic invites us to observe and rethink our current unsustainable systems and logics. As long as the pandemic is ongoing, a window of transition allows pursuing a profound overhaul of goals, values and economies. This Master’s Thesis aims at channelling the flow of information produced since the virus’ outbreak and evaluate the pandemic’s effects from the perspective of architecture and the built environment. The thesis analyses the impacts of the first pandemic year and sets them into a broader political, societal, cultural and historical context. In the first part, examining historical crises and their aftermath reveals transformative dynamics of these catastrophes and parallel developments in architecture and design. This review demonstrates that public health crises have always caused changes in the built environment. In the second part, the thesis maps out developments in the built environment and people’s daily lives since the Covid-19 outbreak. This overview reveals that the pandemic intensifies social inequality, interrupts the use of public spaces, changes political, psychological and ethical perceptions, and asks for a significant emphasis on healthy and ecologically protective environments. In the third part, the thesis integrates these developments into examining whether the pandemic can trigger long-lasting and radical changes. Clearly, this research can only remain speculative at this point; however, the interdependence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 21st century’s major challenges underlines the need for a transformation towards a more sustainable and resilient future. For architects, this is a call to reinvent and re-evaluate the discipline and their work.Description
Supervisor
Reuter, JenniThesis advisor
Arpiainen, LauraVartola, Anni