Pandemic Architecture, an International Ideas Competition curated by the Design Ambassador for ARCHISEARCH.gr, invited the creative community to open up a dialogue and create a think tank, looking for ideas from the architectural and design community about the future of the living, the workspace, the public space and the tourism industry after the outbreak of Covid-19.
HOS-PLAS/NATURE, was shortlisted in top 50 out of 440 projects.
-text by the authors
The 21st century’s earth is overflowed with destructive cycles. Looking at the past and human manipulations in nature followed by the destruction of the ecosystem, it is clear to all of us that manipulating nature is not profitable, but is rather a lose-lose game.
What is the win-win game of this era?
As long as the human pursues with the same old game, such cycles will live on and the ecosystem cannot be rebuilt. We are left with nothing but the myriad of recurring crises, which, in my view, seem to also be opportunities to take good advantage of. How can we take advantage of these remaining infinite resources of ours?
Employing this point of view, interdisciplinary knowledge such as architecture can change our attitude in the face of these destructive forces. Turning an antithesis into a thesis and using threats can turn the pages of this game, and will provide us with a lot of win-win games.
Currently, with the outbreak of Coronavirus, many problems including the imposition of large volumes of waste on nature are plaguing cities, citizens, and nature. The destructive circle of our time is the disposal of high-risk plastics and coronavirus-related waste into nature in many countries, followed by the destruction of the ecosystem and, ultimately, a greater danger to humans.
Pursuing this destructive cycle that feeds on the waste generating factors will make earth prone to long-lasting risks, but if we accept the fact that we are a part of nature and are therefore responsible for it, the destructive waste generating factor can be used to break the destructive cycle, form a productive cycle, and provide us with a win-win game.
Why are these productive cycles essential to the Corona pandemic?
Along with the daily increase in the number of patients and concerns about the shortage of hospital capacities, it is possible to use the threat of hospital waste and turn it into material for increasing the capacity of medical spaces.
Excessive spaces that are constructed by using serum bags would grow in proportion to the number of patients and in turn the number of used serum bags, and would also remove concerns imposing high costs to establish new medical units with new facilities by their smart organization in façade, i.e. being established near the medical facilities of hospital rooms. This system is kindly offered to all governments, regardless of how advanced or wealthy they are.
Serum bags in the HOS-PLAS system act as repetitive material modules that are pressed together after decontamination, and form the pre-fabricated walls of each space by being repeated on planes with the required dimensions.
Ultimately, the HOS-PLAS system will revitalize countries’ nature, healthcare spaces, and weakened economy, and reminds us that some crises are unpredictable, but the role of interdisciplinary knowledge such as architecture can be to see opportunities at the heart of these crises and solve the current pandemic crisis or its aftermath, and even address other long-term human concerns such as clean earth by changing our perspective toward the crises.
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Facts & Credits
Participants: Laya Rafianezhad, Sharareh Faryadi
Country: Iran
The project was shortlisted in top 50 out of 440 projects.
The impact of Pandemic Architecture competition on the international architectural community was astonishing, with the number of registrations to exceed 800, with the final proposals to exceed 400 and with participants from more than 60 different countries.
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Check out the open call and the jury here!
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