The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on every aspect of our daily lives, in ways which we may not even notice. Its effect on our architecture and built environment is no exception – public spaces are regulated by sticky circles dictating social distance and plexiglass barriers. Our interiors have become more fluid, with houses turning into offices, schools, gyms and childcares.
But just as this is not the first pandemic humanity has faced, it’s also not the first time architecture has responded to disease.
Buildings constructed after the Influenza pandemic of 1918 serve as artefacts of architecture evolving for new lifestyle needs. Similarly, as Kyle Chayka writes for the New Yorker, much of Modernist architecture can be understood as a reaction to tuberculosis, with bright open spaces and large windows.
‘Pandemic-Proof’ Architecture in the 20th Century
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Orpheum, built in 1927, is one such artefact. Designed by Seattle architect Benjamin Marcus Priteca, its opulent aesthetic reflects the trends of the Roaring Twenties, with a 3000-pound chandelier and a Wurlitzer organ that can be raised from the basement via a hydraulic lift.
But in its main theatre space – one of the largest in North America at the time – we can see evidence of the Spanish flu’s influence too.
Patrons of the theatre might notice mushroom-like objects under their seats. These are vents, that push fresh air from a system of under-floor pipes into the theatre, while the cap of the ‘mushroom’ protects the vent-stem from debris. In his memoirs, former Orpheum manager Ivan Ackery calls the system “One of the most up-to-date ventilating systems on the continent”.
“Air was brought from the outside and blown through a series of water sprays or screens,” he writes, “heated to any desired degree, then forced through a system of ducts which distributed it to every part of the building through hundreds of small pipes which opened beneath the seats.”
This ventilation process is called ‘displacement ventilation’, and similar systems are present in other theatres, like the Congress Theatre in Chicago. The VSO Orpheum’s displacement ventilation system is still fully functional, and continues to ensure clean air quality for its thousands of patrons to this day.
Displacement Ventilation
Patients with infectious diseases like COVID, should ideally be treated in ‘negative pressure isolation’ rooms, which are tightly controlled and keep the possibility of infection passing to staff and visitors to a minimum. But such rooms are expensive and timely to construct; unaffordable luxuries in this pandemic, which swept the world rapidly and pushed demand on hospitals to overwhelming levels.
Studies suggest that displacement ventilation can be a viable alternative – and much more accessible to install. Bhagat and Linden, of Cambridge University, show that displacement ventilation is far more effective than the more common ‘mixing ventilation’ style for containing COVID in hospitals.
Perhaps hospitals should take a look back through the past, and into the arts scene, to more efficiently manage the future of pandemics. And in another hundred years, future generations may well see our HEPA filters and ancient sanitiser stations and marvel in a similar way.
“As tuberculosis shaped modernism,” reflects Chayka, “so COVID-19 and our collective experience of staying inside for months on end will influence architecture’s near future”.
Cover image: “a symphony of horror 02” by SqueakyMarmot is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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