For an industry accustomed to working with timelines that span several years into the future, architecture spent 2020 decidedly rooted in the present, as COVID-19—and its economic fallout—stalled or killed scores of projects. But that didn’t stop many firms from finding ways to put their design skills to work. Some responded specifically to the pandemic, others adapted their skillsets in the face of pressing needs, and yet others pushed relentlessly forward on stellar new projects that show the increasingly thoughtful work the profession continues to produce.
1. MASS Design Group
For applying hospital expertise during the pandemic’s peak
As inventive as it is unconventional, MASS Design Group took a unique approach to architecture this year, delivering design intelligence in the madness of the pandemic. The collective’s not-for-profit model has led to ambitious hospital designs in developing countries; last year they applied their skills, and style, to helping hospitals such New York’s Mt. Sinai adapt their spaces to respond to peak pandemic patient loads.
2. Studio Gang
For baking permanently affordable housing into the residential high-rise
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