Re - defining the Post Covid Physical World
By : Eshayat Taskin
In early 2020, mankind was forced into living in a world grappling with a pandemic, the Covid- 19.
Anxiety and despair have been dominant ever since as small and large spaces alike are
readjusting to a ‘locked down’ lifestyle. As a result, we are getting to see public and private
organisations being pushed to their limits, particularly those with business models and services
built along the standard of shared public spaces. What’s more, it’s evident that the ordinary
physical experiences people once enjoyed without a second thought are now being considered
selectively. For residents of high-density urban properties, access to safe and uncrowded open
spaces and outdoor leisure areas have become, and will likely remain, a key factor when deciding
where to live. Providing safe shared access to indoor and outdoor spaces through seamless
integration of digital platforms will become a key requirement for urban space planning. The
following paper attempts to shed light on how digitization and emerging technologies can
efficiently address peoples’ practical needs of communication, entertainment, work, socialisation
and consumption in their physical spaces.
Social Spaces
Social behaviours during the pandemic have
changed mostly out of emergency. From here
on, the way people participate in social activities
and do business will drastically change too.
Response strategies to the pandemic have
called for a radical shift in the long-standing
design principles of shared physical spaces,
and the mechanical and digital elements within
them. As organisations are learning to readjust,
digital adoption has accelerated. This digital
expedition will be more relevant to some
industries than others.
The retail and travel industries are pressed to
get customers back into common public spaces
safely while staying mindful of handling capacity
and sanitation. But for customers, they will need
to see, smell and feel that stores are in-fact
“sanitised”. Stores, restaurants, hotels, banks
and common public spaces must make each
day’s cleaning efforts explicit. This could look
like digitised cleaning logs and dashboards that
are regularly updated to ensure shoppers that
the store undergoes a thorough cleaning
multiple times a day. The scent of bleach may
be a new psychological parameter to instil
reassurance.
Another factor to consider for shopping malls is
designing for in-store digital experiences.
Innovations such as virtual “dressing rooms”, in
place of the standard changing rooms, should fit
right into the new post-pandemic model. Banks,
including HSBC and Barclays, have been using
speaker recognition technologies as a means of
authenticating a customer’s identity.
ABI details the following use cases in one of
its Smart Cities and Smart Spaces Quarterly
Updates:
1. Drones: communication and implementation
of social distancing rules; delivery of medical
supplies
2. AI-based remote temperature sensing
(Kogniz Health)
3. Autonomous last-mile delivery (Beep, Navya,
Nuro, Waymo, Postmates)
4. Digital twins: holistic, real-time visibility for
resources and services (Siradel)
5. Real-time dashboards and data sharing: use
of smartphone data crowdsourcing for location
tracking.
Many affluent cities are enjoying the benefits of
a digital-only lifestyle in the form of immediate
adoption of e-Government services, e-Health
and tele-consultation, remote work, online
education, and e-Commerce, thereby resulting
in a striking downfall of traffic levels, city
congestion, accidents, and air pollution.
In China, Hangzhou based elevator
manufacturer XIOLIFT has launched a voicecontrolled
elevator to mitigate the spread of
contamination as people return to work. The
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