Help the development of the site, sharing the article with friends!
Anti Coronavirus urbanism
Efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus are driving creative and life-saving design interventions in big cities.
In recent months we have seen the reuse of buildings, transport containers such as medical facilities or inflatable hospitals as we saw in this article.
Now, that in many countries social life is being activated in the streets. City planners have been working hard to balance the new concept of "social distancing" and come up with ideas that combine efforts, creativity and resources in the fight against the virus.
A new urbanism will have to change many traditional concepts to protect citizens, and this is where a new urban guide published by Born (National Association of City Transportation Officials).
The manual called «Streets for Pandemic Response and Recovery", is a urban strategies guide - it's the first serious manual we've seen - to adapt and redesign the vials against social distancing that will protect the pedestrian.
But… What is special about this document? In reality, it is a resource that collects emerging practices that are being used in cities around the world (three months of analysis) and includes adaptive information on restructuring the street design to provide a rapid response and recovery to COVID-19 .
The document offers both concrete, rapid-response, and design-based treatments as well as practical examples of urban action to help cities act responsibly and equitably while working to transform the built environment.
And it's time to see some of the highlights …
1.- It is time for a physical distance, but without losing balance
As the first wave of the pandemic fades, policies re-envision streets as public spaces and their duty is to help people assemble safely, but without losing the perspective that a poorly designed road is dangerous against road traffic.
To mark distances in the roads, yes !, but without ceasing to lose the reasoning and the perspective that most cities in the world are designed for vehicles, and, therefore, the «weak» element in the city is the pedestrian .
"As urban planners who structure cities and transportation, our job is not to return to the unfair, dangerous and unsustainable patterns of the past, we are facing a new opportunity to help shape a better future."
The streets we create today will provide the foundation for a recovery in the years to come.
2.- Need for basic principles of recovery
Cities must establish principles to guide economic investment and decision-making. The principles of each city should be based on local context, history and need, and should be shared publicly:
- Support the most vulnerable people first.
- Expand and support public space to guarantee social distancing.
- Cities should prioritize safe public transportation, bicycles, and walking paths.
- Support local economies.
- Transparency in the communication of actions, open and frequent, as well as speed of execution.
- Act now and adapt over time. Design correction protocols that allow cities to respond faster and better.
3.- A response to evolution
The streets will evolve during the crisis. With such changing circumstances where the pandemic evolves irregularly with reference to the number of infected (ups and downs), we must be prepared to be able to change road structures quickly.
The document, in this situation, has the following scheme on the types of policies to consider:
4.- A new vision of the sidewalks
One of the urban elements that will change the most in cities will be the sidewalks. Not only do they have to be spacious due to social distancing, but they also have to be transformed into spaces where you can queue for local businesses, wait for public transport, etc. Without losing the traditional security and at an economic cost reasons (Also see urban design manuals)
The document relates different files where real habitual situations are located in cities around the world and where the context is analyzed with key points.
As a curious point of the report, we want to leave the following image of a market and how the location of the stalls has been redesigned to have a coherent social distancing:
Understanding and seeing how they are acting in other cities of the world can help us to practice more accurate actions in our cities.
First, we recommend viewing the Streets for Pandemic Response and Recovery document from HERE. It must be considered that NACTO is collecting a lot of urban information about what is happening around the world about COVID 19, and we can see it from HERE (Highly recommended)
As a complement to the information and because of its relevance. This month a new reference book has also been published by the WHO and UN-Habitat that is a guide for health professionals and urban planning of the territory.
The reference work also shows how an integrated approach to health can influence decisions about sectors such as housing, transport, energy, water or sanitation. Most importantly, consider how they are all linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The document "Integrating health in urban and territorial planning" can be viewed and downloaded from HERE (It is in English)
If you liked this article, share it!
