What will a Covid-safe city look like?
Global elimination of the coronavirus looks highly unlikely, even if individual countries manage this. Even if, for most people, the risk of serious disease recedes as vaccine and treatment technology improves, a residual risk is likely to remain.
How do we measure how well we are managing our residual Covid-19 risk? And are there opportunities for New Zealand cities and businesses to be aware of as we prepare for life once we are through the worst of the pandemic?
The concept of ‘‘liveability’’ might give us a clue about how we might grapple with this. Liveability is the sum of the factors that add up to a community’s quality of life – including the built and natural environments, economic prosperity, social stability and equity, educational opportunity, and cultural, entertainment and recreation possibilities.
Each year, The Economist magazine’s Intelligence Unit (EIU) computes the Global Liveability Index and determines the most liveable cities around the world. The EIU recently ran a reanalysis of the data held about Vienna – ranked as the most liveable city worldwide in 2018 and 2019 – to estimate the impact on premature death related to non-compliance with international recommendations for physical activity, air pollution, road traffic noise, green space and heat, and socioeconomic status.
They found that even in the most liveable city in the world, there was room for improvement. They linked 8 per cent of premature deaths to noncompliance with international recommendations, with most being attributed to air pollution and lack of physical activity. These effects were even larger for poorer areas of the city.
In order to be physically active, you need access to safe green spaces. And access to green spaces, or indeed any space at all outside your immediate living quarters, was one of the major pressures for many living through this pandemic.
We have needed to adapt how we use the space available to us. This is the idea of spatial latency: the capacity of space to fit new occupation patterns and uses.
In a pattern seen across the world, lockdowns saw surges in visitor numbers to parks and gardens for physical activity and recreation. But whereas big cities like Manchester, UK, had capacity to absorb increased use, in more densely populated urban areas the ratio of residents to park space surpassed social distancing requirements, with major urban parks such as Brockwell Park, London, temporarily closed. In cities where communal spaces were in short supply such as in Wuhan, they confined these activities to personal indoor spaces – though people went to urban parks immediately after restrictions were lifted in April 2020.
Lockdowns also revealed another essential dynamic component of future liveability: the need to recognise the importance of designing in high-quality interior and exterior latent space, able to be changed to new uses quickly and easily. For example, shortage of space for many in Wuhan and in Europe meant balconies became increasingly valued as functionally re-programmable latent space, separated from noisy indoor environments. Balconies also became an important interface with outdoor space, daylight, external views, and communal activities like singing – as seen in Italy.
When restrictions lift again and international borders open up, people are going to be looking for a quality, liveable experience whether they are looking for places to live or visit. The more adventurous types won’t be paying much attention to Covid-19 management plans, however subtly they are expressed in design. But there will be a quiet and significant sector who will look for reassurance that their needs for safety and space are being met.
Liveable cities attract both residents and tourists. How we manage the consequences of communicable disease threats is not well integrated into ‘‘liveability’’. But it needs to be. Covid-19 is likely to be an enduring risk for some time to come. How we manage this risk is likely to determine how willing people will be to travel to, or live, in certain areas of the world.
Planning for future outbreaks is a design problem that we need to be working on now, not just for tourists but residents too. Attractive, liveable, built and natural environment responses incorporating elements of indoor and outdoor spatial flexibility can be designed in new building specs and urban communal land use now.
It’s in everyone’s interest to prepare for this future. The smart thing is to do it now.
Planning for future outbreaks is a design problem that we need to be working on now, not just for tourists but residents too.