Learning Cities. Past and Future of Urban Planning and Design After Pandemics.
In cities, pandemics spread out and reveal fragilities in the way human society is organised. Hence, the focus on cities as pandemic centres reveals not only the link between density and pandemics , but also the challenge faced by urbanised territories in tackling pandemics. Through a historical lens that permits a comparative view as well as the reconstruction of contemporary dynamics, the project aims to understand how urban planning and design change after a pandemic. The research focuses on three pandemics – the Russian flu (1889), the Spanish flu (1918), and Covid-19 (2020) – and on three urban territories in Switzerland with different characteristics to reconstruct and debate such challenges and notably resulting practices: Basle, Geneva, and Lugano.
Project applicants:
Dr. Sascha Roesler
Dr. Sandro Cattacin