for building performance and diagnostics at carnegie mellon university, along with architect erica cochran hameen to start spacing our desks so that people are six feet apart. we're not, we're going to have to think about how we pass each other in the corridors and looking at what those corridor widths are. and some places might need some plastic shielding. >> reporter: some argue that >> reporter: yongyeon cho is a professor of interior design at iowa state university. he partnered with pennsylvania state university graphics design professor, huiwon lim, to compete in the "work design magazine" 2020 new work environment competition. their winning prototype re-imagined what collaborative spaces like this conference room might look like. >> we thought some of, like, the largest space of meetinrooms will no longer exist in the post covid-19. >> reporter: their design used hands-free technology to avoid repeated touching of shared surfaces. this door can slide open via a foot pedal. and instead of a whiteboard, this digital board can be controlled from these desks. and in response to the airborne na