Living The Life: ‘We are working on design ideas to fight COVID’

Everyone in our organisation, as soon as it started looking extreme, took part in a learning session. We called a doctor to tell us more about best practices within an office space given the COVID-19 situation. This was sometime in mid-March. Once the lockdown was formally announced, we felt like we had done homework. So, collectively, we decided to do our back-end work -- design and producing drawings. Currently, we got some of the designing works done. When the lockdown was announced, we had a month’s work of design production awaiting us. We are using the bumper time for creative ideas like working on bespoke furniture.

We are also keeping an eye on the online sphere to see how people are modifying their workspaces, and we discussed it from a design perspective. One very interesting idea we saw was how a friend, who runs a podcast, had DIY-ed a set up for himself with three mattresses to block out the sound. As a studio, we love to take part in global design competitions. Currently, we are working on a custom-designed tile. There are thousands of such contests online, as well as ideas on what we can do as architects to fight COVID, too. We are looking out for these initiatives and take part so that we can contribute in some degree. We want to give back as people are asking architects on design ideas to fight the disease.