A Review of Architecture Trends in 2021
The year 2021 (much like 2020) has fundamentally changed not just our health crisis, but our lifestyle, spatial routines, and our design preferences. With the year coming to an end, we gathered some of the nation’s vanguards in the field of architecture to help us review architecture trends in 2021. We’ll review how some trends have helped us live less abnormal lives and how the others questioned well established ideas in architecture and design. In doing these design retrospectives, we salute trends and their pioneers for helping us navigate through the pandemic and propel us to come up with new ones to prepare us for the coming years.
ASEANA Parqal Courtyard
The greatest casualty of the pandemic is our social bond and community relationship. I look forward to seeing people socializing with others in environments with more breathing space, fewer acrylic dividers, and zero face shields!
ASEANA Parqal Balcony
Together, Apart: RMG and Social Reconnection through Architecture
Which among the design trends and practices that emerged during the pandemic would you like to keep practicing for 2022?
Our experience of social isolation will lead to an even more pronounced focus on wellness and longing for connections to nature. Architects will increasingly consider how homes, offices, and other environments can promote well-being by incorporating elements of nature and providing open green spaces. It would be good to see more designs in high-traffic environments like offices, retail, and multifamily buildings that integrate touchless technology features to reduce the transfer of germs via surface contact. Think of automatic doors, voice-activated elevators, voice-controlled temperature control, automated sinks, sensor activated faucets. I also look forward to seeing more prefabricated materials with antimicrobial properties in the market.
Which among the design trends and practices that emerged during the pandemic would you like to drop for 2022?
The pandemic has reshaped our personal relationships, forcing us to live closer together with some people and further apart from others. It brought us closer to our families but isolated us from the wider community. The greatest casualty of the pandemic is our social bond and community relationship. I look forward to seeing people socializing with others in environments with more breathing space, fewer acrylic dividers, and zero face shields!
ASEANA Parqal Aerial
ASEANA Parqal Amphitheater
Which among the design trends and practices that came about because of the pandemic would you like to improve on for 2022?
Increased personal space in public spaces and reduced occupant loads. In restaurants, theaters, and other places of assembly, seating layouts will likely become much more spacious. We used to design public spaces for a certain number of people within a certain number of square meters. Now, we are starting to rethink those standards and how people will really behave in public settings post-pandemic. We have to study how to do that more efficiently. If we are to live with the coronavirus for a longer time, we need to redesign our prison-like isolation spaces and make them more habitable for people in quarantine.
What are the architectural trends in your field of expertise in the coming year 2022?
For commercial spaces like malls, cinemas, supermarkets, theaters, and restaurants, all of which were hardly hit, occupancy rate is now down to one-third of their designed capacity. With online shopping at its peak, we’re seeing the emergence of logistics hubs similar to CapitaLand’s SingPost Centre in Singapore. Retail developers can benefit from logistics hubs because virtual shopping spaces are rent-free! They only need to rent storage space or build their own logistics hub outside the city center where land values are affordable. They could still maintain a presence in malls where consumers could browse in-store, purchase the product, and arrange for delivery of the product directly to their home. Fulfillment is done at the backend of the warehouse so the developers get to save on rentable space for storage.
For offices, the open space planning trend will take a backseat. Office cubicles and partitions may make a comeback. Working from home will now be a common practice resulting in reduced office sizes. The reception area, an important location where visitors get their first glimpse of the office culture, will now be used as a health-screening checkpoint. Here, visitors and employees alike could undergo testing or other procedures to ensure they are well enough to come in. They will most likely include secure areas for contactless delivery of packages. Conference rooms, where whole teams of workers routinely crammed into for regular meetings, will have stricter occupancy requirements with more employees dialing in virtually.
People will seek to carve out their own private outdoor space—balcony, patio, garden, or fully landscaped backyard— and many will look to designers to create these fresh-air havens. Life will change in some way after the pandemic subsides. Everything from travel to work arrangements will be altered. The same is true for architecture and design.
How are you planning to apply these in your current or future projects?
In mixed-use condominiums, we are now pushing for roof deck spaces with greenery. People will seek to carve out their own private outdoor space—balcony, patio, garden, or fully landscaped backyard—and many will look to designers to create these fresh-air havens. Life will change in some way after the pandemic subsides. Everything from travel to work arrangements will be altered. The same is true for
architecture and design. The pandemic opens an opportunity to rethink everything—how we design and build homes, offices, cities and communities to be even more resilient, healthy, beautiful, green, and creative. As architects, we can ideate and advocate for a future where the world is in harmony with nature. It’s an opportunity to make spaces healthier and more beautiful.
Decentralizing Distance: Louwie Gan and Revamping Urban Infrastructure
Which among the design trends and practices that emerged during the pandemic
would you like to keep practicing for 2022?
The Covid-19 pandemic had some impact on architecture and urban planning, particularly on design trends that emerged during this time. These trends and practices that emerged recall traditional design practices that have been forgotten in today's modern culture. First, establishments were required to have proper ventilation to flush away stale air and the accumulation of viruses. Second, access to views and sunlight has become critical to people's health and wellbeing, as many are stuck at home as an effort to avoid infection. Third, it became obvious that people needed access to public open spaces and bicycle infrastructure, features that became important to many during the pandemic. Lastly, it became apparent that large architectural buildings like big box malls are not designed to allow access to open spaces.
Which among the design trends and practices that emerged during the pandemic
would you like to drop for 2022?
Social distancing is defined as reducing human interactions and physical contact. However, human behavior evolved as we socially aggregated with one another. Social distancing can be connected to disinterest and a perceived lack of intimacy, which can manifest as a reluctance to interact with others in extended or casual settings. As an urban designer, I design communities that e