AEC and Pandemic: Response and Impact - December 2020 Update
On the left: Cleaners: a new crew on construction site (Source: iStock). On the right: An Example of physical distancing measures at Dolores Park, San Francisco (Courtesy of Natasa Mrazovic)
Research initiative
This series of monthly reports is meant to help the AEC practitioners understand the COVID-19 impact on the industry with identified short- and long-term trends. Equally the reports provide the information about the industry’s response from month to month in form of a systematization and analysis of observed challenges and solutions specific organizations offer and/or have adopted. The systematized references listed in the last section allow a deeper dive into specific topics.
Categorization of the observed issues & Trend analysis
Given our observation of countless project-specific challenges and the response of the industry, we grouped the issues into 12 overlapping topics. The categorization and the trends will be analyzed monthly and updated as the industry focus changes.
The volume of COVID-19 related publications seems to have further “watered-down” since September, meaning there are substantially less webinars and publications discussing the pandemic only, although the pandemic’s impact and/or related economic recession have been mentioned in the most of publications. The most important news in December 2020 is the global vaccine rollout and related issues. The volume of communication returned to pre-pandemic levels and the community is discussing typical topics. December brings countless year-end review publications. Pandemic fatigue remains. The intensity of the pandemic’s impact on the industry continues to be correlated with the health emergency and economic recession in a specific region. The challenges continue and the industry is worried about the expected economic downturn in 2021 and the next normal, though vaccine rollout brought optimism.
Due to recapitulations and subject watering-down, we were compelled to analyze 40% more publications in December than in September. The December trend analysis is based on 715 selected references (out of 893 analyzed publications). The categorization of the observed issues in December remained the same as in previously analyzed months including 12 categories and 22 subcategories (Table 1). The number of observed issues reached its peak in June.
Read more: Detailed trend analysis and monthly highlights
The highlights of each category observed in the latest published month (December) are provided in the blocks below. More information about a specific category from the latest and previous months can be found in the downloaded report(s) - the links are provided below.
1. (Advance) planning: short- & long-term strategies
- Discussion about this category is at its lowest level since April and we don’t expect it ever to reach the leading position from June 2020.
- Strategic planning remains among the three most discussed topics in December, mostly due to a higher interest in leadership and self-improvement strategies for Individuals.
- “Resilience”, “trust” & “pivot” are the words of 2020, while “thrive” is the word for 2021.
- Various organizations are pledging net-zero emissions by a certain year. Global CO2 emissions dropped 7% in 2020 -insufficient to stop global warming.
4. Health and Safety (of all, including employees)
- H&S has been discussed 20% more in December than in September.
- December discussion focused on specific vaccine development, testing, authorizations, & distribution; and new variants.
- Construction has the highest COVID-19 rate of nearly any industry.
- Mental health crisis deepens due to lockdowns and restrictions, unemployment, & uncertainties in general. Vaccine rollout brought optimism.
7. Buildings & cities for a next normal
- In December the interest in this category has remained on the same level as in September in line with overall dilution of pandemic-related articles.
- The community is “taking a break” and returning to their usual discussion topics such as sustainable materials. December publications bring reviews of 2020 architectural projects and awards.
- The community continues to discuss future of the workplace; the megatrends reshaping AEC; future housingr; public space change in 2020; a boom & digitalization of drive-thru restaurants & distribution centers; social justice; infrastructure & green future.
- Architectural billings in December continue to decline since October.
10. Official Strategies / Guidelines // Rules / Regulations
- The discussion about this category remained on the same level as in September.
- WELL, RESET® and Fitwel have been successfully applied. The community still discusses the need for new building operation standards & healthier policy priorities. Globally city level policies are transforming megacities.
- Vaccine rollout requires regulatory framework. Employers can require proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
- Due to pandemic, some environmental regulations have been eased by governments to bail out leading oil and gas companies setting back the fight against climate change.
AEC and Pandemic: Response and Impact - All Updates
April 2020 PDF • May 2020 Update PDF References
June 2020 Update PDF References • July 2020 Update PDF References
August 2020 Update PDF References • September 2020 Update PDF References
December 2020 Update PDF References • March 2021 Update PDF References
June 2021 Update PDF References
Research Team
Lead Researcher: Natasa Mrazovic
Prinicipal Investigator: Martin Fischer
Website: Junwen Zheng, Marc Ramsey, Andrew Peterman
Comments or Questions: cife-aec-pandemic-research@stanford.edu