The chapter “A Room of One’s Own” looks at whether the health crisis, having suddenly forced so many to use homes simultaneously as offices, classrooms, meeting rooms, and gyms – often with multiple occupants there at the same time – may spur a spatial reorganisation of homes to offer more privacy.

JJ Acuna, founder and creative director of Hong Kong-based design studio JJ Acuna/Bespoke Studio, anticipates a shift towards designated home offices or even rooms dedicated to productive work.

“People are going to invest in proper spaces where they can operate businesses from home, to really forge a live-work environment that won’t be interrupted when the next pandemic arrives,” he says.

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At a time when many people are drawing consolation from cooking, the report also ponders whether walls will go up again on erstwhile stylish open-plan kitchens, to recreate a dedicated space for experimentation.

Designer Jason Yung, of Jason Caroline Design, does not think so. “Quite the contrary,” he says. Yung says his firm has been busy during the coronavirus as housebound clients have had more time to examine their living arrangements.

He has found more people wanting to cook meals – a task usually undertaken by domestic helpers in many Hong Kong homes – but they don’t want to be disengaged from the rest of the household goings-on. The result? “Kitchens are extending to be part of the living room,” Yung says about a trend that has been around in the West for decades.

Whereas owners of larger homes might once have fancied a cocktail bar in their living room, now it’s more likely to be a cooking station.

Here, adults, kids and even guests can be hands-on with the food prep, with the final stages taking place in the actual kitchen next door.

For one project recently, Yung says the client specified a top-end kitchen fit-out for the living room – complete with oven and refrigerator – with more austere cabinetry and appliances in the kitchen not on show. Even those who don’t have the luxury of room for both are wanting an extended bench morphing into the living area, Yung says.

“The whole area becomes public space,” he says. “Cooking, dining and living functions become even more open as the family is increasingly interacting. They want to be able to see each other.”

With all this togetherness something’s got to give, and the helper’s room, usually next to the kitchen, is a prime candidate for cribbing extra space.

In a redesign, this might be an opportunity to relocate the helper’s room to another part of the house – say, nearer the children’s bedrooms. While the kitchen then “grows” to accommodate multiple users, the helper gains privacy by not having family members congregating outside her door.

French designer Peggy Bels agrees that the open kitchen is here to stay because it makes a small flat feel more spacious and much more welcoming. Bels, who loves the open kitchen in her own Hong Kong flat, expects that, with families around the world having spent so much time in coronavirus lockdown, this type of design has cemented its place as the hub of the home.

There are valid reasons for enclosing kitchens – especially for high-heat Chinese cooking, where stir-frying and deep-frying unavoidably generates odours and smoke that can quickly diffuse through the air.

Andy Wan Yin-on, founder of Pure AW’s Designers, also expects the cooking-at-home trend to continue. Clients should consider enclosing the kitchen, or having a glass door or sliding glass partition to shut it off from the living room when desired.

What about those open-plan offices, which TIME magazine once called “a hotbed of stress” with all their noise and distractions?

The Sydney-based arm of an Australian doctors’ union – the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation of New South Wales – hopes to see the back of them, claiming the risks of coronavirus spreading from shared desks and breakout spaces “are too great for any employer to inflict on their staff”.

Workplace designers feel that is unlikely, since open-plan is the most cost-effective way of packing people into buildings.

“Our belief is that open-plan offices will continue to have merit. There are ongoing dialogues with clients about reduction in office space/footprint but it’s important not to go overboard,” Robert Hah, managing director and leader of management consultancy Accenture Strategy’s practice in Greater China, says.

“However, we believe companies will continue to become more health conscious and will empower workers to prioritise health through other means such as availability of masks, and the ability to more freely work from home.”

This won’t please everyone. Catherine Feliciano-Chon, founder and managing director of CatchOn, a public relations company, believes there’s a feeling of impermanence with open-plan spaces which runs counter to the notion of making people feel like they belong in a work environment.

“I understand the argument for open-plan offices when it comes to space efficiency and fostering a collaborative environment,” she says. “But there’s something to be said about balancing these with private spaces that allow people the physical and mental space to think and concentrate.”