Healthier Buildings Post COVID-19
No Doubt About It, COVID19 Has Altered Life As We Know It
If COVID19 has taught us anything, it is here to stay. The concern of it’s spread will fade over time, but the realization that more outbreaks are to come is a reality we have come to understand. This means that we should come to expect changes in the construction of new buildings.
Just as we already experienced the change of air travel in the wake of 911, we will witness new “checkpoints”. For instance, health clearances from a physician, in order to fly, will soon become a prerequisite for air travel safety. Many who have experienced travel through Asian airports are familiar with facial temperatures, checked passports for previous/recent travel, and vaccination histories. Eventually, the day will arrive that we may be required to download our immunization records through a phone app, for future travel.
Hand sanitizer dispensers and temperature monitors will become a routine checkpoint for entry into office and government buildings, schools, and transit hubs. Major sports arenas will most likely follow suit.
What This Means For New Construction
Building owners (and their investors and lenders) will have to outfit their buildings with equipment that will be able to measure components of public health and also respond to their occupants doing their own assessments. This might be disconcerting, and the rollout will be uneven, but the objective is to make us collectively safer.
As developers, we should expect the next wave of construction will include facilities with the ability to collect population information regarding who enters a building and when. With facial recognition and infrared cameras technology available, it will undoubtedly evolve to include other database captures, such as body temperature, when people enter vestibules, or ride elevators.
We should expect physical components of buildings and public spaces to change too. Many organizations have already realized that indoor air quality directly impacts the productivity of healthy people and helps mitigate the onset of sick people. Apps for smartphones, allowing office workers to be able to track and share air quality analytics from their handheld devices, are already in development. New construction will foresee a demand for technologically advanced air purification and filtration systems in buildings. Restrooms featuring hands-free plumbing and buildings offering keyless, facial recognition, or voice-activated entry will become the norm.
In anticipation of new construction guidelines, new bids will now start to reflect the investment of fans, filters, ductwork, chillers, heat exchangers, dehumidifiers and energy-efficient systems to operate them. Project managers will also be faced with the task of accounting for technological costs associated with a keyless and voice-activated entry system, as well as motion sensors for restroom and public water usage.
At Condyne Capital Partners, LLC we are already investigating and incorporating the new measurements for construction that will be required for new projects, and we are taking every precaution at our properties, developments and construction projects.. To learn more about our initiatives, please follow our updates by bookmarking this page, or complete the sign-up form below.
