A modern shopping center is one of the public buildings that is needed by the community both for daily needs to recreational or entertainment facilities.

A modern shopping center can be a place that gathers a large enough mass so its operations are also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the world since late 2019 until now.

Several things that have been done by modern shopping centers in adapting to new normal habits include providing handwashing facilities, hand sanitizers, and checking body temperature.

Furthermore, shopping centers also install warnings on physical distance restrictions between visitors such as circulation, queues, and seats, as well as providing additional partitions to limit sellers and consumers, especially at the cashier.

On the other hand, both macro and micro spatial patterns in shopping centers will affect the circulation or movement patterns of visitors.

In the new normal era, there are regulations that prohibit crowds of people, so that new regulations such as physical and social restrictions are enacted, as well as the implementation of health protocols.

These conditions and regulations have resulted in shopping centers being unable to run as before the pandemic and made some people worried about visiting shopping centers during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, some people who visit modern shopping centers are still unable to follow and comply with the health protocols that have been imposed by the government.

However, the regulations and guidelines for preventing the transmission of Covid-19 in Indonesia, especially on the function of modern shopping centers are still general in nature, so more detailed and easy-to-understand criteria are needed for building users and managers.

Starting from these problems, students of Architecture (Ars.) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) conduct research on the layout and facilities of modern shopping centers that adapt to the new habits.

Chaired by Renaldi Susilo (Ars’20), the team consisted of Richard Putra Sunaryo (Ars’20), Bunga Pasadena Ineru (Ars’20), Aigan Mubiena Fanda (Ars’19), and Muhammad Hafizh Ramadhan (Ars’19).

Supervised by Wasiska Iyati, ST., MT., the team wanted to produce a spatial model and modern shopping center facilities that can be applied to the new normal era.

“We use 2D and 3D visualizations to clarify the guidelines for health protocols in modern Indonesian shopping centers,” explained Renaldi Susilo.

The focus of the team’s research includes the addition of structuring circulation paths at retail as well as structuring the shelves and chairs that pay attention to physical distancing.

The team also design the partition at the cashier, hand sanitizer and handwashing facilities, checking body temperature, elevators, trash cans with automatic systems/sensors, as well as the existence of monitoring posts as well as Covid-19 checks/tests for certain cases.

“We hope modern shopping centers can operate optimally even during the pandemic, but of course while suppressing the spread of the Covid-19 virus,” he said.

The team conducted research in the field of Social Humanities Research for 4 months through the formulation of design criteria. The sources used include regulations, standards, and previous research journals.

Those five also used related technological innovation precedents, as well as evaluation of modern shopping centers with a sample of 3 malls in Malang City through the distribution of online questionnaires.

They also conduct field surveys to collect data and prepare research questionnaires, of course, while still paying attention to health protocols.

Accompanied by Wasiska Iyati, ST., MT., through the Student Creativity Program (PKM) funded by Kemendikbudristek 2021, the team will strive to be able to represent UB at the upcoming 34th PIMNAS. (humasft)