Carlos Lamela shares his insights in “ICON” (“El País”) on Architecture’s Response to the Pandemic

The ICON magazine, edited by the newspaper EL PAÍS, collects the opinion of 13 prominent architects on the responses that their practiced discipline can give to the Covid-19 crisis.

Carlos Lamela, president of Estudio Lamela, proposes a trip back in time to understand how architecture, for centuries, has taught the value of air, light and the right materials for health and hygiene. Lessons that, by being taken for granted, have been diluted over time on our scale of values ​​and importance. At the beginning of the 20th century, modern architecture established the essential character of these values in “The Athens Charter” – ventilation, light, and health. “Architects like Le Corbusier had enacted manifestations along this line due to the great unhealthiness and lack of hygiene of the urban centers of that time, and of architecture in general, where there were hardly even wastewater systems and potable water supply networks”.

The past weeks lend lessons for the present, one of them being the quick engagement of working from home. “How quickly we have organized ourselves in such a short time must make us reflect on the future by using fewer resources in transportation, working more from home, and saving ourselves from unnecessary meetings,” says Carlos Lamela.