Jeanne Gang at NewCities for The Big Rethink: Cities After COVID-19
The Big Rethink: Cities After COVID-19
“Pandemics and the Public Realm”
For the past ten years, NewCities has been committed to shaping a better urban future through events, knowledge-sharing platforms, and actionable research. As the coronavirus pandemic brings urban life around the globe to a halt, The Big Rethink is a series of live virtual discussions about the impacts of COVID-19 on city-making and city-planning around the world. Premiering Tuesday, April 7th,“Pandemics and the Public Realm” brings together leading global experts to examine the longer-term implications of the COVID-19 crisis.
Plazas where we congregate, walkways, and parks are places that bring us into close proximity, and their necessary erasure from day-to-day life highlights the extent to which a pandemic is anti-urban. Historically, there is a long relationship between disease and urban planning, and a major reason why cities have proven so resilient is that planning and design are quick to adapt. In this inaugural episode of The Big Rethink, Jeanne Gang will join Christopher Hawthorne, Chief Design Officer for City of Los Angeles; Richard Sennett, Professor, The Senseable Cities Lab, MIT Chair, Council on Urban Initiatives, United Nations Habitat Chair; and host Greg Lindsay, Director of Applied Research for NewCities; in looking to the past, present, and future of the planning and design of public spaces. They’ll discuss how practitioners have previously responded to major outbreaks of disease; whether its necessary to rethink density as a guiding principle for smart growth; and how to design spaces which bolster community during periods of physical distancing – without the looming threat of surveillance.
Details
April 7, 2020
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.
Zoom Video Webinar