New York Architects on How COVID-19 Is Urging Us to Rethink Home Design

It’s official. As a native New Yorker, the city I love has now evolved into the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. A field hospital has been retrofitted inside the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center while emergency hospital tents are being erected in Central Park. As 8.5 million residents try to practice social distancing, sheltering in place, and self-isolation, New York City architects and designers have scattered, relocating multidisciplinary offices into their own homes.

A mere month ago, the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Census Bureau projected an uptick in home building for 2020, but as residential construction—and life as we know it—is on pause, Dwell asked a roster of young and established New York architects to project how the new coronavirus will reshape building, work lives, and the future of home design.

Morris Adjmi was eager to discuss work and how his multifaceted practice has transformed overnight into a 100% virtual firm. Adjmi’s current team of 120 employees is dispersed throughout the New York metropolitan area, Philadelphia, and a small satellite office located in New Orleans, where Adjmi was born—and is staying currently. 

"I think productivity has been high, but it’s hard for people to stay mentally engaged," he says about the current emotional state of his workforce. With ongoing projects on the boards including a dormitory complex in California, Adjmi insists that video conferencing helps preserve a semblance of normalcy as the office continues to maintain a connection through private team meetings, studios, and staff gatherings.

While working remotely is now routine, it will take discipline to adjust to conducting design charrettes—an intense, collaborative problem-solving process—while home alone. Juergen Riehm, cofounder and partner with David Piscuskas at 1100 Architects, says, "The outcome of this crisis may be a renewed sense of appreciation for domestic space."