COVID-19 - A Seasonal Phenomenon | Mohit | Rayes | Namitha

 

COVID-19 - A Seasonal Phenomenon

 

Introduction

The prophetic warning by the Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg that “the microbe that felled one child in a distant continent can reach yours today and seed a global pandemic tomorrow” has once again proved its relevance with the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as the latest pandemic that is affecting human health and economy across the world.

We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations — one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people’s lives. But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human, economic and social crisis. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has been characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), is attacking societies at their core.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has had significant psychological and social effects on the population. Research has highlighted the impact on psychological well-being of the most exposed groups, including children, college students, and health workers, who are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms of distress. The social distance and the security measures have affected the relationship among people and their perception of empathy toward others.

Research references

Studies show that SARS-CoV-2 ,the virus that causes COVID-19 may behave like many other coronaviruses that circulate more widely in fall and winter.

To find out if that could be true, researchers analyzed COVID-19 data including cases, death rates, recoveries, testing rates and hospitalizations from 221 countries. The investigators found a strong association with temperature and latitude.

One may conclude  that the disease may be seasonal, like the flu. This may become relevant after the vaccine controls these first waves of COVID-19.This concept is supported by the fact that even after the year round effort by mankind to suppress the virus and to find its vaccine, new variants seem to be coming into picture at almost the same time of the year.

[SOURCE: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, news release, Jan. 27, 2021].

 

Revival of Mankind in Seasonal Pandemics

 

Taking into consideration the current scenarios and studies, the theory that might arise in the future years is that “ Pandemic scenarios such as Covid-19 or similar ones may become a frequently occurring seasonal phenomenon , but mankind and architecture will learn to evolve,adapt and survive in these catastrophic situations.

Architecture can turn out to be an ever evolving scenario where it has to cater two contrasting scenarios-To the season of pandemic and To the Non-pandemic times.

It answers the basic needs of people and manifests the characters of society. It connects our consciousness to the reality settings that interplays with the presence and the transience. The image of it suggests daily matters that evidence the passage of time. It is the background of our narratives of life. To most extent, practising architecture is a journey of self-recognition.

Architecture is inhabited: sequences of events, use, activities, incidents are always superimposed on those fixed spatial sequences. These are the programmatic sequences that suggest secret maps and impossible fictions, rambling collections of events all strung along a collection of spaces, frame after frame room after room, episode after episode.’

[Source:Tschumi (2012), P.61]

Architecture might need to amplify the current conditions of the neighbourhoods to address interacting social activities when there is no pandemic and restrict them whenever a new pandemic arises.

Interpretation of poster

The poster explores a narrative technique, parallel narrative, into spatial design theory. It transforms the background of daily matters: incidents, encounters, and the transiences that define our memories and identities as the foreground to reveal the notion of presence and self-awareness when a person is forced to isolate themselves within a closed environment .

 

 The poster also becomes a reflection of the normal times[non-pandemic times] showcasing  different aspects of the place with events, movement, the transience and building grid etc., which the data are superimposed into a secret map that is distinct from the visual settings but presents our perception of the space.

These cyphers are then translated into volumetric settings to amplify the existing events and spatial social interactions. 

This contrast in spatial design and architecture helps to support the dwindling extremes of human behaviour and psychological needs. On one hand the architecture helps to sustain the peace of mind during isolation,on the other,it also helps to amplify the social interactions and stand back in a minimalist nature.Hence we can expect a redefinition of proxemics theory. [ Edward T Hall].

Conclusion

There can be an urban movement yet contributed by a series of discontinuous structures with a focal view of the factions of the very tiny or invisible elements within spaces. The poster hence reflects the philosophical aspect of architectural changes that might occur in the near future. Indeed, if the nature of space is interpretation, architecture shall follow fiction.