Living together — while staying apart

High-density highrises and city centres have some new challenges. Urban planners and designers are already looking ahead

Will we ever again feel safe in a crowded elevator, or a popular lounge, or a busy gym of a condo tower? How will highrises deal with the onslaught of package and food deliveries prompted by the pandemic?

Urban planners and designers are considering the post-COVID-19 world and the changes that will be needed for safer, healthier and more flexible living in urban and suburban centres.

“I see this as period of innovation and opportunity creation,” said Toronto-based Mansoor Kazerouni, global director, buildings for the IBI Group. “The challenge for us as urbanists and designers is how to create safe, resilient environments that responds to the new normal and yet be able to facilitate social interaction that, as human beings, we thrive on.”

Kazerouni and planner, landscape architect and urban designer Trevor McIntyre, global director, placemaking and international, for IBI Group, shared their thoughts on what we can expect.

Condos and apartments in highrises will remain small but the changes coming will see more adaptable features and greater storage.

McIntyre said the use of social spaces — such as workout areas, lounges both indoors and outside, conference rooms and shared work spaces — that are integral to condo living will be rethought.

“Nobody uses those spaces every day and we have the tools to book these spaces in advance,” he said. “There is no reason that they can’t be designed as shared spaces.”

“Those spaces are vast in a 300-unit building,” agreed Kazerouni. “If the technology was there and spaces properly designed with hard cleanable surfaces, you could have 20 people in a gym at a time, with half an hour in between for a cleaning regimen. We’ve got to learn from this (COVID).”

Many of us will still work from home parttime while going to the office on staggered days and hours to lessen peak burdens on transit and highways.

“I think the den will take on new meaning, so it can be converted into a home office when social distancing is required,” Kazerouni said.

“And a lot of apartments in the city are shared by renters, and many have two bedrooms and a shared bath. I don’t think we’ll be sharing any more and there will be as many bathrooms as bedrooms.”

New nano technologies and self-cleaning surfaces used in health care will migrate to the residential realm. As well, “technology will allow you to use your cellphone to call the elevator, or link your cellphone-activated home alarm to the elevator, so when you leave your unit, it acts as the de factor elevator call button,” Kazerouni said.

For those able to avoid elevators, stairways in buildings will be rethought. “You should be able to have one staircase going up and one down. People are walking and running and have become more active during the shutdown,” said McIntyre.

“If you create a well-lit corner stairway, it could become part of people’s exercise regimen,” said McIntyre, whose firm developed a design with glass-enclosed stairways at end each of the hallway in the Roy, a Halifax luxury condo.

Buildings will have to accommodate increased parcel and food delivery, said McIntyre, who notes that instead of five to 10 per cent ratio of parcel lockers to the number of condo units, it

may become one-to-one to reduce the number of hands touching a locker.

Attention will also turn to the surrounding neighbourhoods that highrise residents depend upon for amenities and outside space.

Wider sidewalks and pedestrian-focused programs will likely expand, such as the ActiveTO initiative that closes Toronto roads to vehicle traffic on weekends and turns them over to cyclists, skateboarders, runners and walkers while allowing social distancing.

McIntyre and Kazerouni both see a greater focus on mixeduse communities with essential supplies and services such as small-scale grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, schools, parks and pharmacies within a 10minute walk of all homes in a residential zone.

Urban agriculture maybe a consideration while urban planners must accommodate drone deliveries and delivery lanes for programmed autonomous delivery vehicles.

McIntyre said communities could be designed like ski resort villages are, except around transit rather than ski hills. “You park the car, leave it and walk to stores, restaurants, and create the lifestyle people want.”

David Amborski, a professor at Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, and a professional urban planner, said the effect of COVID-19 on high-density living is yet to be determined. But, he notes, recent polls have indicated just three to five per cent of highrise dwellers will consider relocating.

“Living patterns are determined by places of employment and some people might find remote work,” he said.

IBI GROUP Condo owners and residents may have to schedule their time in amenity spaces, like lounges and libraries, to stay safe in the wake of the pandemic, say urban designers.

ISTOCK A cellphone will act as “the de factor elevator call button,” predicts Toronto-based Mansoor Kazerouni, global director, buildings for the IBI Group.

NAAHQ.ORG More deliveries will need to be accommodated, says planner and urban designer Trevor McIntyre, with IBI Group. Lobbies may need a locker for each unit.

After cataclysm often comes change. The pandemic has overturned our lives and our assumptions. In this occasional series, the Star looks at what lessons we might take and what future we might build.

LINDEN LASERNA IBI GROUP Outside lounges and roof gardens may need to be booked in time slots, suggest urban designers.

IBI GROUP The Roy condominiums, in a historic area of Halifax, N.S., has glass-enclosed staircases that provide light-filled alternatives to the elevators and serve as a stair-climbing fitness option.