Towards Sustainable Design: Influence of pandemics on Architectural Design and Urban Planning through the ages

Abstract

In the history of the built environment, interior design and urban planning have always responded to epidemics by designing architecture and urban spaces to resist the different viruses and pathogens while preventing their spread. The architectural design strategies used in the past centuries, including Modernism, were a reaction to creating pandemic-free built forms and spaces, thus creating a healthy and sustainable built environment. The Italian piazzas, modernism, minimalism, decentralization of urban cities, urban renewal, etc. were a few of the design outcomes of a pandemic-resistant environment. This research study will help architects understand and evaluate the design strategies used to achieve a healthy, sustainable built environment, thereby adding progressive layers of protection against the virus. Future-built spaces must be designed by taking into account what we’ve learned from the past and moving in the right direction toward sustainability.