Responsiveness and Adaptability of Housing Spatial Design to New Emerging Functions: The Case of COVID-19 Pandemic

Results of this study are discussed under two main items: The first is the ability of the housing units in their current situation, of the two mentioned types (open and closed plan) to adapt to the changes in the lifestyle of families residing in them during the pandemic. The second is the changes that the residents made or intended to make inside their homes to get a better adaptation to the changes taking place in their daily lives. The results will also be used in both items to discuss the required changes to the future design to increase the ability and flexibility of housing units to adapt to life requirements after the pandemic.

Table 1. The ability of the house to adapt to new functions

4.1 The ability of the current design to adapt to new emerging functions

Table 1 shows 10 questions used to measure people's satisfaction with the different parts of their homes during the Corona pandemic. Reliable measures were used to compare the traditional and contemporary plans, which are, satisfaction with spaces, thermal comfort, satisfaction with ventilation, calmness, and safety factors. These are very necessary elements to be available in all residential units, regardless of their design, especially during the long period of stay inside the house, where the need for healthy homes is doubled to reduce infections.

In the first question, people were asked how satisfied they are with their available space during the Corona pandemic. Although the area of the sample selected from the two types, the open plan, and the closed plan is approximately equal, the level of satisfaction among residents of modern open plan design is an average of 85% which is relatively more than that of residents of traditional houses (closed plan) 78%. The reason is that the open halls give a feeling of spaciousness and a suitable place for communication between family members in different parts such as living, dining, and kitchen. The ability of the open plan is greater than the closed plan in terms of adapting to the communication needs for longer periods between members of the same family during the pandemic period. Many families exploited the adaptation by spending a lot of time preparing food and playing with their children.

The second question is about the users’ opinion on the organization of the various functions inside the home. The recipient’s satisfaction with the interior organization for the open plan was an average of 84% compared to an average of 77% in the closed plan. Since the pandemic period was an opportunity to spend more time changing some details related to the arrangement of furniture and adapting it to the various recreational activities of the family. The study found that the residents of the open plan have been able smoothly and comfortably to adapt the open space to daily life changes. For example, enlarge the dining table space to play tennis, or add some seats to the living space to watch TV for a larger number of family members. In that period the open kitchen had a great role in collecting family members and increasing social contact between them, recipients have average satisfaction in the open plan 82% about the kitchen and bathroom location compared to the closed plan 77% as shown in question 3.

From this standpoint, it appears that the first three questions in the table have made progress in the percentage of users' satisfaction with open-plan homes because they are related to the formation of halls and kitchens and their ability to motivate spending recreational and social times among members of the same family at the time of the pandemic. However, the differences are less and the satisfaction rate is almost equal concerning bedrooms of children in question 4. There are no significant differences between the two styles because in each of them the rooms of children and adults are characterized by the same independence, 78%, and 77%. It is noted that many families have used bedrooms for other purposes during the pandemic, such as work and e-learning. However, this often causes disturbance to some family members, because these bedrooms are often shared by two or more people.

For questions5 to 10, the table is witnessing a shift in the percentage of users’ satisfaction is higher for the closed types over the open plan types. Question No. 5 shows that 85% of the recipients in the traditional closed plan are satisfied with how quiet the home is, compared to 75% in the open plan. The observed reason is the ability of the independent rooms to provide quiet space for users, especially during the official meetings of the working father or mother, which turned to the online working system for many families. Likewise, more than 80% of the samples had one or more children who needed a quiet room to attend the electronic lectures. In this case, the guest room was reused in the traditional style (closed plan) as a multi-purpose room for study and work, away from the disturbance of other family members. This transformation was encouraged by the absence of visitors during the pandemic, so the room was redundant for the family and isolated from the inconveniences coming from the living and the kitchen. This room provides privacy for work and study, and can easily be converted into a multi-purpose room. The sixth question shows a greater satisfaction with acoustic privacy in the traditional closed plan, 79% compared to 71% in the open scheme.

As discussed previously, the need for social interaction and entertainment inside the home increased during the pandemic, and the need for privacy to perform work from home increased as well. The homes that contain a multi-purpose room were also distinguished by providing a high rate of privacy for work and study, as well as for quarantine, which explains the high index of satisfaction among recipients in the traditional closed plans 78% compared to only 69% among recipients in the open plans as shown in question7.

Because the pandemic has forced the residents to spend unprecedentedly long periods in their homes, it was an appropriate opportunity to assess the environmental adaptation of homes in summer and winter. It is also noticed that the closed plan is better than the open plan in terms of adapting to different temperatures in summer and winter. The periods of home commitment were long and entered into several seasons. The answers to the eighth question show a higher satisfaction rate among the residents of the traditional closed plan, an average of 79% compared to an average of 74% among the residents of the modern open plan. The reason is due to the ease of cooling and heating the room if it is closed compared to the large and open spaces. This observation is confirmed by residents of houses with a modern plan, as they confirmed their increased presence in bedrooms during the pandemic, because of the ease of their adaptation and the cheapness of electricity costs compared to the air conditioning of open halls. The answers to the ninth question confirm the increase in the satisfaction of the residents of the traditional closed plan with ventilation and artificial lighting in the rooms by 82% compared to 76% in the open plans.

Another important thing that closed plans provide is to provide safety for young children - less than four years old -. The results of the tenth and last question show a greater satisfaction rate among the residents of the traditional scheme (82%) about the safety of their children, compared to 72% of the residents of the open scheme. The reason is that closed rooms help parents control children and keep them away from what harms them inside the house. In this context, the closed kitchen shows superiority in enabling the mother to close the door when the kitchen is not used to keep children away from sharp tools. On the other hand, the long periods that children needed to stay at home with the closure of nurseries and schools made it necessary to have a multi-purpose room - former for guests - to practice various recreational and educational activities in a safe environment that does not need much supervision by parents.

4.2 Required Alterations to adapt emerged functions

Table 2 shows the results of the questionnaire which are divided into two sections. The first section discusses the changes that residents have made or intend to make to the interior design of their homes to better adapt to the requirements of the emerging functions during the pandemic. The questions in the table include the changes to the openings (windows and doors), different functions and balconies, as well as other matters related to the furnishings and maintenance. The second section discusses the reason for these changes, and their relation to the items discussed in the previous table, such as obtaining a new function, better solar and ventilation, privacy, and quietness.

It is noticed that the presence of the independent rooms, especially the multi-purpose room, in the traditional closed plan reduced the need for fundamental changes to the house's interior design. Here, there is less need to make changes to the openings like windows and doors, compared to the open plan. The table shows that 30% of the residents of the open plan need to make modifications to the openings, either to create a new room or to change the function of one of the rooms. These changes are either by adding a space or dividing a large space into two parts. This type of change usually faces obstacles if changes are not allowed on the exterior facades of apartment buildings, which leads to reducing the possibility of such changes and consequently the difficulty of adapting to new functions in open-plan homes.

Regarding the need to make a change in the facilities, it was in the form of adding a bathroom or dividing the large bathroom into two bathrooms to fill the need for a larger number of bathrooms, especially in the case of quarantine and the need to isolate the bathrooms for the infected person from others. This need also increases in the open plan to 30% of cases because their homes often do not provide a private bathroom for guests, as in the traditional closed plan, which can be used as an additional bathroom for the family, so the need to change the bathrooms does not exceed 5% in the case of the traditional closed plan. The wide disparity between these results (25%) is properly due to the main character of the closed plan that composed of many permanent partitions compared to the open plan which led to much difficulties in the case of sudden changing of spatial design.

As for the need to make changes to the rooms’ functions, it was 15% in the houses with a closed design, and the changes were to make the rooms large or small to suit the new uses. While the need to make changes to the rooms in the open plan increases to 30% of the selected sample. The reason is sometimes due to the need to create new rooms by dividing part of the open space and using it for study, work or quarantine. While many cases were unable to make changes to the rooms, not because they were not needed, but rather because there was no suitable space for that change in their homes. Accordingly, it is expected that the percentage to increase much more than 30% if it is possible to make these changes in the open plan homes.

To overcome the previously discussed lack of space, some residents closed the balconies to increase the area of their homes and included them in the hall, or created small rooms in them for various activities. The table shows that 10% of the selected open-plan sample added balconies to the interior space and none of the families in the closed scheme needed to include balconies to increase the space in the closed-plan housing units.

The last item in the required changes in terms of making changes related to furniture and maintenance, table 2 shows a wide disparity between results. A high percentage (80%) in homes with a traditional closed plan design compared to modern open plan (0%) for two reasons, the first is the lack of a great need for fundamental changes such as changing rooms, bathrooms, and openings, so the largest percentage was for small changes. The other reason is the presence of independent rooms and multi-purposes that encouraged residents to acquire luxuries and accessories that help with multi-functionality, such as foldable and removable furniture, with a greater percentage than the residents of open-plan homes, which gives greater flexibility in the open halls to deal with traditional furniture and adapt it to suit many recreational and social activities as discussed before.

The second part of the table shows the reasons for these changes, whether they have already taken place or the residents intend to do. The first reason was to have better privacy. Where the result was higher in houses with an open design, higher by 10%, as expected for houses with a traditional closed design, only 5%, where the separate rooms provide better privacy. The second reason was to get a better space. This was the main driver of changes in modern homes, 50% compared to only 5% in traditional homes. This is due to the spaciousness of the open space and their occupation of most of the space, which increases the need for separate spaces for new activities such as study and remote work. On the other hand, there were other motives for making changes in modern open plan homes, such as obtaining better climatic conditions 10% versus 0%, quietness 10% versus 5%, or a better location of rooms 10% versus 5% in traditional closed plan homes. The largest percentage of change motivation in houses with traditional closed plan designs for other reasons (80%), including maintenance and obtaining better equipment and alternatives, due to the lack of need for the above-mentioned motivation of climatic conditions, privacy, and others as discussed previously in Table 1.

Table 2. Required Alterations to increase the ability of the house to adapt to new and emerging functions

People were asked about their overall satisfaction with the adaptation of their homes to new jobs during the pandemic period. Table 3 shows the extent to which users in the selected sample are satisfied with the performance of the day wing of their homes - which includes living, dining, and the kitchen - in adapting to the new functions in the pandemic period, which is the need for greater times of social communication and entertainment, as well as the need to work and study from home. In addition to the need for quarantine for family members in case of infection. The table shows a greater percentage of satisfaction in general with the functions of social interaction and entertainment in modern open plan homes (the third and fourth types) compared to homes with traditional design (the first and second types). This is because the social and recreational functions were not completely new, but rather the need for them increased with the gathering of family members for a longer time during the pandemic. The open spaces in general showed a better ability to satisfy people in these aspects. On the contrary, the results in Table 3 showed that residents of houses with traditional closed plan design were more satisfied with the day wing area in terms of adapting to other new functions, like working from home and studying remotely. The first type of closed plan design showed the greatest ability to adapt to quarantine, as there is a separate bathroom for the guest room that was used for quarantine during the pandemic period.

The results show a necessity to develop a new design or a modification to the future interior design for single houses and residential apartments to respond to the future emerging functions. These emerging functions can be related to health conditions like pandemics, crises, and disasters resulting from wars or harsh climate events, fundamental changes in the work environment like moving towards working remotely, etc. The required changes in the architectural design should take into consideration (besides the basic function of the home) the social and entertainment requirements on one hand, and the need for adaptable space for other functions like work, study, quarantine, etc.

4.3 A comparison between the traditional and modern plans

The presented study aims to learn from the evaluation of adaptability and flexibility of architectural design of residential units in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The result from the study can be adapted for similar conditions where housing should adapt to emerging functions and uses.  The \analysis of the field survey shows that the total ability to adapt to the new emerging functions of houses with modern (open plans) design (76%) in the third and fourth types, is less than the total ability to adapt in houses with traditional (closed plan) design (79%) as seen in table3. Although the population’s level of satisfaction with the functional adaptation of the day wing is close to the open plan styles, 77% for the fourth type and 79% for the third type, compared to 80% for the first and second types. The reason for this convergence is that modern patterns were abler to respond to recreational and social functions, while traditional patterns were more capable of responding to newly created functions such as working and studying from home.

It is also noted that the ability to adapt to the modern open plan design was greater in the third pattern with T-shaped halls than the square hall in the fourth pattern. The reason is that the guest suite is somewhat isolated from the rest of the hall, as it facilitates the process of creating a new room using temporary partitions in case the family wishes to do so.

Table 4 shows that adaptability for the five sections discussed in the introduction is available in the third open plan style. This style combines the ability to bring about various changes from merging, dividing, and changing in function with only the need for simple modifications such as moving partitions that can be used to create a new room. In case there is a need for new functions to be quiet, such as work and study, these divisions will provide the needed conditions.  Also, these partitions can be removed to increase the capacity of the space to accommodate the social and recreational activities of family members. Therefore, the third pattern is one of the patterns that are ablest to adapt to the changing lifestyle after the COVID-19 pandemic.