Application of COVID-19 guidelines in workplace design

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 has been recorded as one of the most severe worldwide pandemics. Workplaces are a germicidal environment for spreading viruses due to their high occupation. As a response, international health, safety, and architectural organizations have published pandemic-related guidelines to create a safe working environment for the employees. Covid-19 has impacted reshaping the internal architectural workspace design. The research shall review the published international organizations’ guidelines on workspace design and its architectural interpretations established by international design companies, which seek to create safer designs for workplaces post-pandemic. This study is a concise review of the workplace-related guidelines and precautions published by health and safety and architectural organizations such as WHO, CDC, OSHA, ASHARE, AIA, AHIA, and ILO. Secondly, aggregate data has been developed to frame and compile the design interpretations of the published pandemic guidelines recognized by several international architecture and furniture companies which has been interpreted into architectural plans of the common spaces of the office buildings. As a result, a matrix table was created which includes the common spaces in office buildings and their post-COVID architectural solutions. This matrix shall be used as a tool to be employed as a guide for design consultants in designing healthy workplaces that are resilient to airborne pandemics, which shall benefit in revisiting the architectural standards according to the published workplaces Pandemic guidelines.