What the future may hold for architects and the wider design community is explored in an interview with Una Barac, Executive Director at Atellior for Sleep & Eat.
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As the weeks indoors stretch on, the Sleep & Eat team are checking in with our community to discover how others in the hospitality world are dealing with lockdown.
What do you think will be the biggest change in how you do your job post COVID-19?
COVID-19 has shown us all how easy and doable remote meetings and video conferencing is. We’ll all be far more flexible in our approach to working remotely. Offices will still exist, but it will not necessarily be 9-5, five days a week. We will also cut down number of meetings and travel, which should all hopefully have a positive impact on carbon footprint reduction. I hope this pandemic is making people (and governments) realise that we need to be kinder to our planet, nature and animals.
It’s a difficult time for the hospitality industry. What do you think will be the hospitality sectors biggest challenge post COVID?
It will take some time to build back consumer confidence and get people to return to hotels, bars and restaurants in numbers that were seen prior to the pandemic. As architects we bear big responsibility in designing safer destinations that will allow for necessary distancing during pandemics, which are sadly becoming a regular occurrence. Social distancing is not only going to be present at Front of House, for the guests and visitors. We will need to create safer working environment for the staff too. This will see significant changes to Back of House facilities too, on top of more stringent housekeeping.
What should those in the hospitality industry be doing now to help them prepare for the coming months?
As I’m closely following industry press releases and publications, I see a lot of talk on increased housekeeping measures, which are key in combating the virus. But new approach will have to be multifaceted. Bars, restaurants, even airplanes will have to accept much lower densities, which will bear impact on their turnover and profitability. Whole approach to food displays will need a “rethink”. Use of technology from placing an order to contactless payment will come into its own. And as already mentioned we will have to create safer working environment for the staff, firstly through housekeeping, but also through different spatial planning, which may become more space-demanding.
How is Atellior planning to ‘hit the ground running’ again in the coming months? Do you have any new project ideas in the pipeline?
We are lucky that number of our projects haven’t stopped, so we continue to work remotely without an abrupt break. Lack of business development means we will all have to work hard after the lock-down to win new work for the second half of 2020. We have been pitching via video link to some clients and even winning projects, which has been fantastic.
To see our recent work and some new designs, sketches, mood boards and ideas visit our Instagram @atellior_design