"With people spending up to 90% of their time indoors, there's an urgent need to re-engineer indoor spaces to create workplaces that are productive and safe," said Liviu Tudor, founder of Genesis Property, who is advising banks including Societe Generale on "immunising" their offices.

Implementing IMMUNE in offices could cost up to 2% of a building's total construction cost, Tudor estimated. This could include installing quarantine rooms, disinfectant UV lighting, upgraded air filtering systems, thermal scanners and even repainting walls with anti-microbial paint.

IMMUNE for offices could cost up to 2% of a building's total construction cost, Tudor estimated. This could include installing quarantine rooms, disinfectant UV lighting, upgraded air filtering systems, thermal scanners and even repainting walls with anti-microbial paint.

Liviu Tudor: “We hope that the Immune Building Standard, after all conclusions are drawn, will become a ‘mandatory by law’ standard in the same way the fire code is imperative for good functioning of any building.”

“We developed Immune to ensure that people and organisations, when returning to their offices, are provided with a building capable of withstanding present and future challenges, whether generated by a pandemic or any bacteriological or toxicological threat,” said Liviu Tudor.

As part of the Immune Building Standard being proposed by the president of Brussels-based European Property Federation (EPF), quarantine rooms should be set up close to the receptions of buildings to provide an isolated space for a person who might be infected; toilet cubicles should have floor-to-ceiling walls; rounded corners should become the norm to minimise bacterial deposits; and buildings should have hospital-grade air-filtration systems, among others.

As part of the Immune Building Standard being proposed by the president of Brussels-based European Property Federation (EPF), quarantine rooms should be set up close to the receptions of buildings to provide an isolated space for a person who might be infected.