What should the post post-pandemic city look like? This architect has a few ideas

Eran Chen is a judge of the 2024 Innovation by Design Awards. You can apply for this year’s awards here, and read more about past winners.



Eran Chen has an expansive view of what an architect should be in 2024. The founder of ODA, a New York City-based architecture and design firm with more than 50 built projects under its belt, Chen says architects can’t just be hired hands designing buildings to meet their client’s demands. Today, architects should also be involved in programming out what their buildings will be used for and how, while also being activists who can ensure those projects meet the needs of the communities where they’re built.



To some that might sound like extra work. But to Chen it’s a logical extension of the talents architects use on a daily basis. The pandemic has only heightened the need for this type of approach, Chen says, because people have come to expect so much more from urban environments. What worked in the decades before the pandemic can feel wholly irrelevant today.



Here, Chen explains why this creates a unique opportunity for architects and designers to rethink the ways they work. It might mean wearing more hats, but it can also result in buildings and places that actually give people what they want.



What trends do you see shaping architecture in 2024?



I’m fascinated by the change in dense urban environments that for a while related to the post-pandemic era, but I think is something that also relates to the progress of technology and how the world is changing in general. Most of it has to do with the public realm in cities, and what is the give and take and the relationship between the public realm and the buildings that fit within our cities. For many, many years, I would say even decades, there was a certain balance and separation between what constitutes private land and on top of it a building and what constitutes public realm. I’m fascinated by the opportunities of blurring those lines, extending the public realm into private land and into the buildings themselves as an element that allows us to transform our cities less by program or less by district and more by experiences.



When you look at that as a way of practicing architecture, or of citymaking to a degree, how different is that from the recent past or from the silos that tend to separate disciplines in the design world?



We’re increasingly involved in the programming of buildings, not just designing them. The traditional relationship between architects and designers toward the client is the client comes with a set up program in mind, say a school or a museum or a residential building or an office building, and the architect provides an architectural solution. Today, because technology allows us to do everything from everywhere, the programmatic definitions are also blurring. We can work from home. The office is not just a traditional formulation that we were used to, sitting in cubicles. It’s much more than that. And hospitality is much wider than just hotel rooms. Museums are even becoming much more interesting than just displaying art. So our role as architects now becomes more involved in ideas of programming how the building can accommodate different types of activities. It’s a radical change, as you can imagine. And the other thing is how the form of the building, which traditionally in modern architecture follows function, now starts to follow what I call experiences, or fun. Form follows fun, form follows experiences. The way we shape our buildings is not just to accommodate the traditional way of looking at function, but rather what the experiences in each one of those buildings would be.



When you look at the industry at large do you think other designers are seeing this as well? Are the developers, the money people behind these projects, seeing the wisdom in taking that approach?



I think it’s a slow process but absolutely I can see this percolating. Because first of all the private sector developers follow the money, they follow success. And we start seeing in many projects around the world where the traditional streetscape of a sidewalk and traditional retail is broken into more innovative forms there’s more commercial success to those buildings. The private sector is very open to what makes their building more successful. The biggest opportunity in our industry right now is the empty office building. In major cities we’ve got millions and millions of square feet of empty office buildings. There’s got to be some sort of a solution, and the traditional formulation of let’s just put retail at the ground floor and fill this office with something or convert it to residential, that’s not enough. What we find is when we start carving into those buildings, extending the sidewalk into the heart of the building, creating green spaces, engagement spaces, galleries, food and beverage markets that are not necessarily driven by the bottom line we bring a lot of value to the floors above.



When you think about the architecture industry in general and the role designers should play, what are some focus areas you think designers should be putting more energy into today?



I’ve started to feel in the past 10 years or so that the traditional role of the architect within not just our society but within the industry of the urban environment has been radically reduced to being a service provider of design. I find more and more so that our involvement in community outreach and community advocacy, our ability to be in between the private sector and society, to be that connector, has a much greater role in the education of our clients and the communities that we serve. Our role as architects can and should expand to be activists. There were periods in time when architects were more activists, not just through their designs but through their narrative and through their communication of their ideas, and I think it’s coming to that point where successful architects will be the ones who are able to tell a wider story and be intimately engaged with community politics as well as policies.



So, the architect needs to be more of an instigator?



Yes. And I see this as an opportunity because the gaps between the needs of our communities and policymakers and private actors has been radically increased. I find myself in a position where one does not want to talk to the other and there’s a collective resentment between the different bodies that are actually supposed to work together to make our lives better. That opportunity puts us as architects in the driving seat because we are not necessarily seen as part of either. If we find a way to communicate well and understand our clients’ needs but also come with a deep understanding of our communities and also a deep understanding of policies, we can be the pivotal point that creates a change and creates a win-win situation.