Life After COVID-19: The Necessary Analysis of Modern Gathering Spaces

Abstract

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the highly volatile and highly vulnerable state of modern society. For the most successful recovery and return to normalcy, it has become increasingly apparent that many aspects of everyday life must be adopted, adjusted, or outright abandoned in the future. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the transmission of viral diseases within various types of mass seating (stadiums, theaters, lecture halls, classrooms, etc.). To address any areas of potential improvement in each instance, an in-depth analysis of overall efficiencies in terms of sanitation, cost, and navigation will be conducted. Currently, as a result of the global health crisis, our quick solution to reducing virus transmission during a global pandemic is to either cut room capacities or prevent in-person meetings altogether. Ideally, however, this method of transmission control can be avoided entirely, given that this project produces a viable long-term solution to be implemented in response to a potential future pandemic; in which case, national economies and societal norms would not have to be compromised.

The initial idea for this thesis was to derive some sort of long-term solution for in-person seating: to investigate how different viruses spread and apply that knowledge toward reconstructing more sanitary layouts for seating and places of gathering. Over time, this idea grew to include a wide range of possible improvements that could be extrapolated from an intricate analysis of blueprints and human observation. Ideally, the result of this thesis will serve to improve not only public health but additionally: the cost efficiency of engineering seating structures and ventilation systems; the ease of navigation through a particular room or stadium; and individual’s mental outlook and emotional state whilst in a given room. What started as a shallow analysis of engineering became a fully-fledged project that will delve into numerous aspects of life.

Finally, the most important goal of this thesis is to ensure that the general public will not feel inconvenienced by any newly proposed systems. The ideas of wearing masks and keeping distance are foreign to the average American, which leads to hesitation and discomfort. Therefore, any newly proposed method of constructing more optimized gathering areas will thereby attempt to minimize the required additional responsibilities on the part of the individuals in a particular environment. Such an implementation will be more marketable and more readily accepted by the general public.