My position is trying to go beyond the idea of dealing with COVID19 as an opportunity but as a paradigm shift that will change every aspect of life and particularly the way houses, neighborhoods and cities are planned and designed. We need to move to an authentic people-based urbanity and architecture. How do you see this from your perspective and your context?
The Post COVID-19 Urban Futures series from UCL may be of interest - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/development/post-covid-19-urban-futures
in my point of view this paradigm shift may be the starting point of the so-called New Normal not only in planning but also in every sectors that are involved to the city functioning as well as the peoples day today lives also . yes in that case i believe this COVID-19 is more than a pandemic and this may be the second chance that gave from the mother of nature to all of us to re-think in every aspects not only the physical build forms or the physical development of a country or the world but also it is reminding us about the Humanity also. i think you are starting a good and timely related discussion on this. Thank you for the question.
Covid 19 will certainly influence the practice of urban planning, especially in the aspect of spatial planning and development.
The planning and development of smart and resilient cities will gain momentum. Also, existing cities will not remain the same in the aftermath of the pandemic in terms of new development, modification and redevelopment.
Ali A. Alraouf, COVID-19 issue is a paradigm shift in urban planning as well. More correctly, COVID-19 unveils weakness of concepts of sustainability and smart cities - virus obviously more "smarter" than smart cities urban planners. I guess that core vulnerability is an idea of isolation. City could not be studied and managed as area isolated from its environment - whole Earth, not just local vicinity. Earth itself is a least quantum of smart planning. Therefore Digital Earth concept is an ultimate common denominator for all planing activities - that is lesson of COVID-19.
Indeed, through reflective planning. I am not if there will be paradigm shifts though, but perhaps revised and revisited methods or approaches.
Ali,
That Covid19 could trigger a paradigm shift in urban planning is possible. However, there is the huge problem of inertia once an urban area has become established. Following war as in Hamburg or Nagasaki a totally new approach to urban planning can take place, which could accommodate green public and private transport systems, new layouts for housing with better spacing between to permit more open public space and so on.
But the present situation does not provide a clean slate. The same old blocks of flats, narrow streets, congested road networks, dying high streets, the proliferation of out-of-town shopping centres, the lack of open space are factors that inhibit change in most large towns and cities. Now what I have so far argued may seem defeatist, but Covid-19 does offer an opportunity to look carefully at the whole question of urban planning into the future. More space is essential, a move to towards integrated top quality transport networks particularly intra-urban transport (tram, bus, underground, train). Urban planning and architecture that make living in cities desirable, rather than having thousands commuting 20kms and more to and from work.
There is so much more to be said on the subject, Ali. I wish you well in gathering as much information as possible on this question
Kind regards
George Strachan
In my opinion the pandemic has exposed various existing pre existing issues. Pandemic may come again , vanish or even take a new form. But the problems will remain. This pandemic situation has generated multiple “pre-existing” systemic issues. Rapid shift to urban lockdown has created cultures of quarantine, encapsulation, remoteness, virtuality and denial. While the virus as the control variable and the questions that relate to our current living experiment remain problematic for all people, some people are in relatively better condition to deal with them than others. This has accelerated the urgency of rethinking the urban system. Hence in the urban design and architectural perspective it is important to critically reflect and suggest possible alternatives and add to the broader globally developing debate on how we should rethink the world after the crisis.
From history, disasters and crises have redrawn the world's great cities. Urban development must be placed in historical, present and future perspective. For example:
- Tuberculosis, believed to have caused almost a quarter of all deaths in the 1800s, was associated with overcrowded cities. It was one of the driving forces behind both the Garden City movement and the modernist town planning of Le Corbusier and others, which argued for settlements surrounded by ample green space.
- And the creation of the city’s sewer system was a response on the London’s cholera outbreaks of the mid-19th century. Not only it involved a network of underground drains but also the construction of the Thames embankments. Its effect was political as well as hygienic.
Currently there is a growing interest for creating green spaces, including Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), that will reshape our cities after the lockdown.
https://www.researchgate.net/project/CATCH-Interreg-North-Sea-Region-Climate-Resilient-Cities/update/5edde84539f1f30001625313
My colleague Paul Chatterton at the University of Leeds does a lot of work on this. Here is a recent article in The Conversation by him: https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-were-in-a-real-time-laboratory-of-a-more-sustainable-urban-future-135712
Personally, living in Bradford, I don't see the city changing anything. No pop-up bicycle lanes, no on-street parking limits, no speed limits, just to mention a bit on transport. Just yesterday, a 30-year old woman died speeding into a parked car on the road I live on.
However, other cities are doing so much more, like Manchester, Paris, Milan (sorry, very Europe focused). A city like Bradford has had the same people in power for a long time, always complaining how little money they have. This is true, but then why do other cities manage to do so much more?
I agree with others in this chat, how the pandemic has blatantly shown the inequalities globally we all brushed under the carpet - especially rich vs. poor and racism. I think in order to achieve a paradigm shift, we need civil outrage and/or political will. Neither is present in Bradford. I hope they are present in many other places so that cities like Bradford will eventually be forced to act.
My own perception is that this pandemic may reinforce the necessity of moving towards the concept of smart cities, with its different levels and details. Where that stage is undoubtedly a watershed in the history of city planning.
The present pandemic is a presentation of a rehearsal of a behavioral demand of a new spatial order in human activity development. As man continues to explore the possibilities of AI with inadequate attention to nature there would be the need to evolve a new existential space for the accommodation of man as his anti-environmental consequences continue to explode.
"Paradigm shift" is a strong phrase. It's certainly a time for reflection and many are trotting out their favoured alternatives and vague fuzzies that they have been getting nowhere with for years. I don't really see why COVID-19 should change anything. About the only real change that might happen is that the push to densification that has been going on for over 40 years might slow down a bit, as it has become pretty clear that packing too many people into a small space is actually dangerous, and that the space of suburbia actually has merit.
Most human activities occur indoors, within enclosed spaces. The COVID-19 pandemic indeed provides an opportunity to re-examine these spaces and their conduciveness for activities they were designed for. While AI and Intelligent systems can be explored in monitoring and regulating the indoor environment, their energy consumption must also be considered.
Green technology incorporation has received much priority. Attaching few papers for your ready references
Again, I doubt there are opportunities here. Planning as an activity has virtually disappeared and the world will increasingly pay the cost as it continues to congest. We can see its complete failure in the inability to stem COVID - a Great Planning Disaster which everyone is refusing to acknowledge while the twittersphere fluffs away. The dumbing-down of society is inexorable.
In support of what I posted earlier - the value of central locations is falling due to lockdown and work-from-home, people at home are demanding more personal space so the price of suburban dwellings is rising. The middle-aged kids are also moving out and occupying the apartments formerly occupied by international workers. Rent gradients are flattening but they are not falling.
About the only positive is that third-world professionals are getting better access to courses and opportunities. The impact on the teeming billions is yet to emerge.
The SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic could have a significant impact on urban planning and / or design if the pandemic was to continue for an extended period of time. If mankind does not solve the pandemic problem in 2021, then anti-pandemic safety issues will be taken into account in the planning and / or urban design of urban agglomerations, i.e. additional and improved air ventilation systems, anti-pandemic design of workplaces in office buildings, buildings of offices and public institutions, etc. However If, thanks to efficient vaccination programs in 2021, the problem of the pandemic is resolved, then the inclusion of anti-pandemic safety systems and instruments in planning and / or urban design of urban agglomerations will not be implemented to a large extent.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz