Housing and urban design for COVID-19 pandemic; design for prevention of virus spread

Abstract

The new COVID-19 disease, which is affecting the world and has infected and killed many people, has rapidly changed people’s lifestyles and, accordingly, changed people’s needs, including their demands on their living environment. As the disease progressed, people were forced to stay at home to escape the disease. Even cities and public spaces could no longer be used. These situations, as well as the anxiety caused by this unknown disease, quickly led to mental health problems such as depression, isolation, aggression, stress, and physical illnesses due to inactivity. Given that the living environment of people, and above all, their homes, has a direct impact on the physical and mental health of people, profound and fundamental changes and decisions in the design and construction of houses are necessary for this situation where people have to spend most of their time in their homes. On the other hand, people need to socialize with each other and do their daily and essential tasks easily, even in a pandemic situation. Therefore, the urban design must also have significant changes in accordance with these conditions. In this article, we will review the design strategies of the city and the design and construction of houses to better respond to them in such situations.