The effect of epidemics on architecture and design
Light, air, and hygiene [...] were the best treatment for tuberculosis at the time. The design and construction of specialized sanatoria coincided with the advent of Modernism. Architectural elements like flat roofs, terraces and balconies, and white- or light-painted rooms spread across Europe. Not unlike the sanatorium, the new architecture was intended to cure the perceived physical, nervous, and moral ailments brought on by crowded cities.
The collective desire to cure and prevent the seemingly unstoppable tuberculosis epidemic through deliberate design choices had given tremendous momentum to a revolutionary movement in our fairly recent architectural past: Modernism.
It is too early to say which, or if any, lasting effect the developing COVID-19 health crisis will leave on design and architecture. The cultural, and mainly technological, impact already caused by the sudden global switch to remote working and teaching will likely only be the first sign of irreversible change requiring continuing solutions and adjustments in years to come.
Read more on the subject of health-centered design as guiding factors in the evolution of modernist architecture in Archinect's review of the book X-Ray Architecture by Beatriz Colomina.
