Building a safe space in the pandemic

Modernist design was, in part, a response to the tuberculosis epidemic of the early twentieth century (Colomina, B., X-Ray Architectureopens in new window, Lars Müller Publishers, 2019). Medical centers for treating and containing the disease embraced open spaces and minimal interiors—and such design choices had psychological implications.

“A white, pared down space feels clean, while big windows give people a sense of connection to the outdoors, fresh air, and sunlight,” says Nélida Quintero, PhD, a New-York based environmental psychologist and architect who works as a consultant and adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Like tuberculosis, COVID-19 is changing our public and shared spaces, Quintero says. Easy-to-clean surfaces, contactless technology, and layouts conducive to physical distancing and air flow are now in vogue.

Environmental psychologists, who study human interactions with both the natural and built environment, are starting to consider how best to modify spaces like schools, offices, and grocery stores. They’re conducting new research and applying existing findings on factors including risk perceptions and trust-building to provide designers, architects, and business owners with evidence-based recommendations on making public spaces feel safer.

“An important role of environmental psychologists—and social scientists in general—is to collaborate with designers,” says Setha Low, PhD, a professor of environmental psychology, anthropology, geography, and women’s studies and founding director of the Public Space Research Groupopens in new window at the City University of New York. “Our focus on data can provide them with much-needed evidence on the interface between people and place.”

As American schools and workplaces begin to reopen, a top priority for employers and business owners is to gain the trust of those who visit their establishments.

“Trust is at the core of feeling safe,” says environmental psychologist Sally Augustin, PhD, the principal at the consulting group Design With Scienceopens in new window. “Fortunately, a lot of psychological research has explored how to build trust in physical space.”

For one, entering a space that is fundamentally familiar can support feelings of trust (Baer, M. D., et al., Academy of Management Journalopens in new window, Vol. 61, No. 5, 2018). Though some changes, such as the addition of plexiglass barriers, may be inevitable, she suggests welcoming employees back to a recognizable space. In other words, don’t use the pandemic as an opportunity to redesign the entire office.

While keeping physical spaces familiar is comforting, making safety precautions highly visible to occupants can show that a company is taking COVID-19 seriously, says Quintero. For instance, cleaning that typically takes place after hours could instead be done in plain view of customers and employees.

“It’s not enough just to improve ventilation and physical distancing—people need to be aware that this is happening,” she says.

Minor design changes can also address some of the psychological challenges the pandemic has wrought, including a perceived loss of control. Quintero recommends empowering people to modify their environment in small ways, for instance allowing employees to open a window or, if that’s not feasible, giving them access to outdoor spaces. Simple environmental changes such as adding plants or natural materials, playing nature sounds at a low volume, and reducing visual clutter may also help to assuage stress, says Augustin.

But it’s important to remember that design isn’t magic—it works in conjunction with other factors, she says. That means these psychological strategies should be used alongside measures that truly improve safety—and not as a way to lull patrons or employees into a false sense of security.

Psychologists say that insights from the field—for instance, an understanding of how people perceive and assess risk—should also be considered as businesses, schools, and other institutions as they weigh more permanent design changes.

“A lot of this has to do with the mental models of safety that people carry with them,” says John Fraser, PhD, a past president of APA’s Div. 34 (Society for Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology) and CEO of the think tank Knologyopens in new window. “Even in places where the risk is very low, like zoos and aquariums, we’re seeing radically lower attendance.”

Many such establishments face permanent closureopens in new window, while the American Alliance of Museums predicts 1 in 3 museumsopens in new window may not survive the pandemic. To help minimize that loss, Fraser’s team at Knology is partnering with the Association of Children’s Museums, the Association of Science and Technology Centers and several other organizations to launch a National Science Foundation-funded study to understand patrons’ perceived risk of visiting such spaces.

Psychologists also aided efforts to ensure safe and equitable access to public space when some states’ lockdowns involved shuttering parks and beaches. Low has led seminars, including through an online series hosted by the Journal of Public Space, on how to safely reopen outdoor spaces, such as parks and beaches, in New York City and Los Angeles. She also helped the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City create “third placesopens in new window,” semi-private spaces where high-risk groups, such as older adults, can congregate within its facilities.

“Socially just public spaces help make the world a humane place to live,” Low says. “And with COVID, we need that more than ever.”

Architects and designers are now facing the reversal of a major design trend—companies are turning away from communal open-office plans, in favor of separation and isolation.

“The virus has flipped some notions on the head,” says engineer and architect John Haymaker, PhD, director of research at global design firm Perkins and Willopens in new window. “We’re having to rethink our design intuition, guidance and rules of thumb given the different ways spaces are now being used.”

Psychologists are supporting that abrupt shift with focused research that can provide data on building occupants’ needs and behaviors throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. For instance, the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environmentopens in new window (CBE), a research-industry consortium, is studying the interaction between shared offices, home space, and virtual space as work remains primarily remote and distributed. The team there is adapting its 20-year longitudinal study of how occupants perceive workspaces, schools, and health care facilities to understand changes wrought by the pandemic, including the spatial and psychological aspects of working from home.

“Where is work actually happening, and how do designers and architects adapt to that?” says social psychologist Lindsay T. Graham, PhD, a researcher at CBE. “COVID is changing human behavior dramatically in a way that we can’t fully predict yet.”