This Editorial is aimed at summarising the main outcomes on the Research Topic "Adaptive Design Solutions for Buildings and the Built Environment Post COVID-19 Pandemic". The collected works have demonstrated from perspectives how adaptive design solutions in the built environment can offer contributions to influence health, comfort, performance and wellbeing during and after a major pandemic like the COVID-19. Some critical aspects were particularly highlighted by the contributors of the Research Topic, which regarded the effects of COVID-19 and how it can help change our approach to design and management of indoor environments, facilities, spaces, and additional infrastructure in the built environment. As Editors of this Research Topic, we believe that the approaches and solutions offered are promising and can be exploited to improve our knowledge on the impact of COVID-19 on building design and beyond. In addition, thanks to such novel approaches, the effectiveness of the available control strategies can be enhanced and some new ones can be developed to enrich users’ experience and improve their quality of life.
First article by Shepley MM, Kolakowski H, Ziebarth N and Valenzuela-Mendoza E (2021) focused on how the COVID-19 will change health, hospitality and senior facility design by emphasising on healthcare facilities, which will require additional space, access to the outdoors, service hubs, and additional infrastructure to all conversion of garages for emergency use. It discussed hospitality settings that would employ new cleaning methods, use of robotics, improved HVAC, wellness programming, workspace options, and flexible food service operations to tackle highly contagious conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Second article by Kahn K and Mariita RM (2021) presented a measure to extract the optimal Ultraviolet Subtype C (UVC) requirements to improve facility management yet ensuring compliance with ventilation guidelines at lower energy costs through the Kahn–Mariita (KM) model that considers the air quality of shared enclosed spaces over time by supplementing the existing mechanical ventilation with localised UVC air treatment and includes variables such as room size, occupancy, existing ventilation, and target equivalent air changes per hour (ACHs). Third article by Raveendran R and Tabet Aoul KA (2022) reported on the difference in radiation level inside a wired, hybrid and a wireless smart home through Computer Simulation Technology (CST) simulation where such a quantification can help designers develop strategies to design smart buildings that cause low radiation for its occupants. Antenna field source was imported to CST to create the wireless and hybrid design scenario. Fourth article by Salonen N, Mäkinen R, Ahonen M, Mäkitalo T, Pelto-Huikko A and Latva M (2022) aimed at establishing a way of solution for infection prevention and control (IPC) within built environments by introducing a new indoor hygiene concept (IHC) and providing a tool for implementing necessary IPC actions during a building’s life cycle to construct or renovate hygienic indoor environments. Fifth article by Buonanno G, Ricolfi L, Morawska L and Stabile L (2022) undertook a study with validation of a recently developed predictive theoretical approach capable to estimate the SARS-CoV-2 risk of infection of susceptible individuals via the airborne transmission route in school buildings. In such cases, the need for mechanical ventilation systems to protect students in classrooms from airborne transmission has proven significant as the protection is greater if ventilation rates are higher than the rate needed to ensure indoor air quality. Lastly, the sixth article by Mäki A, Salonen N, Kivisaari M, Ahonen M and Latva M (2023) described the use of antimicrobial surfaces (AMC) and how they can reduce the total number of microbes on a surface but poses the risk of dysbiosis, microbial imbalance, such as the polarised growth of metallophilic, metal- and antimicrobial-resistant, and other survivor bacteria, and the overall reduction of microbial diversity.
To summarise what type of adaptation they are referring to and their particular contributions:
● Healthy and healing environments regarding modifications to hospital design;
● An alternative way of approaching the problem of air quality by using localised Ultraviolet Subtype C (UVC) for air treatment that is converted into an equivalent ventilation;
● Determining the difference in radiation levels inside a wired, hybrid and a wireless smart home through Computer Simulation Technology (CST) to help designers develop strategies to design smart buildings that cause low radiation for its occupants;
● Proposing a comprehensive indoor hygiene concept for infection prevention and control within built environments;
● Increasing the ventilation rate as an important measure to remove inhalable virus-laden respiratory particles and lower the risk of infection in school buildings.
● Approaches to the use of a metagenomic sequencing before the large-scale implementation of Antimicrobial Coatings (AMCs).
