Reimagine Home after the Pandemic

As we enter into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many things have evolved during

this time, and home, which is one of the primary topics in everyday human life, suddenly

resurfaced as the most important part of our society and became people's new sanctuary. As a

result of this change, the home definition also evolved and tended to gain new connotations and

purposes. As the pandemic expanded its impact, we confined ourselves in the home to

lockdown. We made some self-imposed restrictions on indoor gatherings. Therefore, contrarily,

we found new peace in using public, open spaces like parks and greenways more and more. It

seems our homes, which were meant to be our sanctuary, didn't give us enough space to

re-energize. Our connection with home grows as working from home continues to become a

new model in the after-pandemic era, and people still want to enjoy the flexibility of working

remotely. Most employers that never thought remote working could be an option now become

adaptive to new changes and try to get ahead of themselves to make the working environment

more exciting. The pandemic appears to be a major event in the past. However, it left some

fundamental questions for us to think about. What is a home? What is the definition of home for

different generations, age groups, and even different societies? What are the main elements

and characteristics of a place that we can be called a home? Answering these fundamental

questions is even more challenging when we consider the direct and indirect impact of the

pandemic, such as how we deal with our home offices or the housing market turmoil in recent

years that added complexity to housing affordability. Housing affordability was exacerbated in

North Carolina as more people migrated to this area because of the inefficiency of their homes

in providing a sustainable environment for relaxation.

To answer these questions, qualitative and quantitative research should be conducted to

characterize the home definition before the pandemic and redefine these characteristics for the

after-pandemic era. Furthermore, these researches need to be executed in national and

regional areas to allow us to understand the dynamics of the topic in different groups?

As a landscape architecture professional with a background in architecture, the first basic idea

that comes to my mind when thinking about the home definition revolves around one word --

balance. This balance can relate to many characteristics of the home. The balance is between

the inside and outside space, the building mass and open space, the home and the

neighborhood, and the neighborhood and the city block. This perspective can be widened to

include the region and even the state. A home loses its meaning if designed without a strong

relationship with its outdoor space and surrounding context. Future homes can be planned and

designed with a holistic view in mind so that the large picture, from the regional framework plan

to site details, becomes a part of the design process. The future master plan shouldn't be a

static entity that provides a guideline; it should be a dynamic entity that encompasses human

and space interaction to maximize the characteristics of home definition. This vision can help

the future of single- and multi-family homes, mixed-use pockets, and parks and open green

spaces to integrate into the context of home in the larger picture.

There are many ways to design future homes, but the following is one way to look at it. Homes

are not just stand-alone building masses but also an integral part of the community and

neighborhood at-large. The cohesion of the neighborhood and home's surroundings is the

actual meaning of home. To achieve the ideal home, the appropriate ratio of open space and

building mass is what I call the game-changer here. The outdoor open space can be a

semi-open entrance, porch, balcony, deck, courtyard, underneath a cantilever, open basement,

void and patio, rooftop, or simply any opportunity, even tiny, to connect inside to outside.

Sometimes these connections can be made by strategically putting vertical and horizontal

windows in the right location, using skylights, building form and volume, or simply orienting

windows or building mass in a direction that can get the most suitable views and connections to

the outside. Of course, this is only possible if the home parcel is large enough to give a space

for locating the building and create more opportunities for views and connections to outside.

These all seem a no-brainer, but somehow it seems we failed to make these connections before

the pandemic. When we talk about the small parcels, tiny homes, urban infill projects, and

similar situations where we don't have a large piece of land, how do we connect inside and

outside? In this situation, looking at each region's development ordinances, codes, and

regulations may not provide all opportunities to design our homes and neighborhoods. As an

example, the Raleigh UDO residential districts chapter has three housing options; Conventional

Development, Compact Development, and Conservation Development. Therefore, all housing

options have standard codes for building, landscape, and parking setbacks. These housing

options imply different rules for each lot, but they always have item lines about these setbacks in

the ordinance. Thinking creatively about these setback requirements and interpreting them in

each situation can be rewarding and provide opportunities to design the ideal homes.

Maybe the missing link is the potential to revamp the housing options by rejuvenizing the

percentage of home outdoor open space and the building mass based on the pandemic's new

findings. There are many ways to maintain regulations while creativity is not limited. For

example, adding some flexibility in incorporating the different setbacks as potential areas for

various forms of the home's outdoor spaces and proposing incentives for those using different

setbacks as new opportunities for making a creative form of outdoor spaces for their homes.

This may be similar to the percentage of outdoor amenity areas that apply to townhouses,

apartments and many multi-family residential. The definition of home, with its connections to the

outside and having access to the outdoor open areas even on a micro-scale, is vital and can

evolve to shape new forms of housing options. The need for a different type of home and its

various meanings from people to people and country to country was deemed necessary during

the pandemic and continues its mixed impacts in post covid era.

The proposal is written for the 22 Real Matter Workshop by Sahar Teymouri in May 5th, 2O22.