The ‘New Normal’

Context

The Covid-19 pandemic is not something people like to reflect on much. Given the disruption caused to society and the profound loss and grief experienced.  

Not to mention the ongoing mental health challenges.

At the time of writing this article, in 2025, people are very focused on getting back to ‘normal’ and moving on from the disruption of the previous years.

However, I believe this moment in time is far more pivotal and will be looked back on in the future as an important time in history for many reasons.

But what does ‘getting back to ‘normal’ mean? Or a better question might be.

What is ‘normal’?

Since 2020 we have been hearing this term ‘the new normal’, it is important to examine what that means.

Currently, in the architectural industry, I see a lot of frustration from people at all professional levels regarding this topic.

People are either pro work from home or completely against work from home.

Usually, people adapt these attitudes based on their personality.

By my observation, Introverts like working from home and extroverts like working in the office. And in a similar sense, Libertarians like working from home and authoritarians like working from the office.

I may be oversimplifying it. And I do recognise that job role and the task at hand also have influence on people’s attitude towards remote work.

However, I do see general similarities in the people who like to work remotely, and similarities in those who don’t.

These trends have been on display since the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, and I don’t think any resolution will be reached by looking at the problem from a personal point of view.

So, let’s look at it from a societal perspective.

Social Perspective

In a previous article I spoke about BIM (Building Information Modelling) being a circular moment, ‘what goes around, comes around’ as they say.

And the outcome of this pandemic seems to be no different.

Before the industrial revolution, most of the economic output of a country came from the home in the form of farming and crafts.

During this period there was a much bigger emphasis on the family unit and community.

Then along comes the Industrial Revolution which pushed vast numbers of people off the land and into industrialised cities to work in centralised factories, and later into offices and over time less importance has been placed on families and community.

In fact, it is also worth noting that as governments get bigger, less and less emphasis is placed on family and community as government seeks to take the place of these institutions.

I’m sure you see this change in your day-to-day life. How many people do you know in your street? How close do you live to your extended family?

Despite all the years of workplace evolution since the beginning of the industrial revolution, Covid-19, in the space of weeks, reverted large parts of a countries economic output back to being generated from the home.

Luckily for us technology was at a point where this transition was possible. The outcome of this transition, in my opinion, is starting to show itself for the better for families, the community and society.

These societal shifts have led to noticeable changes at the community level.

Benefits of disruption

One of the first benefits of remote working I observed in society was my local suburb, and the surrounding suburbs for that matter, becoming more vibrant at all times of the day.

Shops and cafés not only have started returning to my town centre, but the cafés and shops are quite busy.

Instead of centralising workers in the central business district, the work from home revolution has spread the wealth into local communities.

This outcome makes sense to me, I know I would rather support my local businesses than spend my money outside my community, and I am sure many people share the same sentiment.

The second thing I noticed occurred last year. My children’s school held a Father’s Day event where fathers were invited into the classrooms to spend time with their kids.

I was astounded to see how many fathers showed up across all the classrooms at the school. The classrooms were busy!

In an era that is increasingly alienating fathers, seeing so much enthusiasm and positivity can only be a good thing. Is this an effect of the freedom of being able to work from home?

I’m not sure, although I would likely suggest that it is, based on the conversations I had with a couple of Dads who were overjoyed they had the opportunity to attend because they could work from home that day.

If more focus on local community and families is part of the ‘New Normal’ then I am all for it!

Surely having more wealth being retained in local communities can result in more projects for architects in those areas.

Add in the benefit of people having more family time, and we should see a reduction in stress for staff members and the community at large.

The question is going to be how architectural companies and planning authorities adjust to these changes, both in a design sense and a business model sense.

If this trend continues, then more consideration will need to be placed on urban planning and development in the regions and suburbs, as well as companies finding better strategies to incorporate remote working.

The Architectural industry’s reaction to working from home, so far, seems to be mixed. Some companies have embraced it, and some have dictated a return to office policy.

What concerns me is the government's push to force workers back to the central business district.

A push that is being driven by declining rates of commercial tenancy and a perceived reduction of economic output.

Yes, there is likely to be a reduction of economic output in the CBD, because the economic output has spread out amongst the suburbs.

All the work from home revolution has done is shifted the wealth generation to people’s local communities.

I am still going to buy a coffee, I’m just more inclined to buy it from my local barista and not a barista in the CBD.

I see the decline of the CBD not as a negative, but as an opportunity to innovate and re-adapt for new purposes.

Something we are going to have to get experience doing as developed countries go through a period of demographic decline that is predicted.

Conclusion

I acknowledge that not everyone is going to agree with my opinion on this topic.

People who live alone and get most of their social interaction at work, or the people in the local council of your CBD witnessing the decline of their inner-city, won’t have the perspective to see the changes in the suburbs.

Overall, I see this ‘New Normal’ as overwhelmingly positive for mental health and a great opportunity for architects if we play our cards right.

In time, more wealth in the regions and suburbs should equal more work in the regions and suburbs, as new services and infrastructure will be required to meet demand.

And consequently, the empty buildings in the CBD become a challenge in re-adaption for the owners, which should also result in more work.

Is it time to rethink how we build cities to accommodate this new paradigm?

Embracing a combination of remote and in-person work, while innovating our workflows and finding new revenue streams, could be the key to adapting to this new paradigm.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, this is an important topic that needs conversation.