Social distance dictated by COVID-19 health emergency affects access to public space and with it creating a range of impacts on different levels. While global lockdown is destabilizing economy and challenging country leaders, at the human level the pandemic is generating isolation and loneliness, with a significant raise of helplessness and fear. Everyone is asked to stay home and rearrange daily routines and work activities in indoor domestic spaces, looking at the world from behind a window. Under this circumstance, we, public space scholars and activists have been wondering the questions, such as what is the future of public space? How can we face this unprecedented emergency and get prepared to its consequences, in specific regard to health disparity? Will public space restrictions stay in place after recovering from the pandemic? Is there something we can do now all together?

Therefore, this initiative is curated by City Space Architecture Founder Luisa Bravo and Hendrik Tieben, Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in cooperation with many academic scholars and researchers affiliated to leading Universities. We believe that we can build social and health resilience by establishing an open environment for discussion and learning, while taking advantage of technology and virtual platforms that many can currently access for free. As the pandemic moves across different continents and urban conditions, we can share experiences from places where the virus had hit earlier or where recovery will start first.

In addition to establish a series of webinars on Zoom, we would like to collect the worldwide situations and experiences about public space under effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic through an online survey.

You can reach the organizers under the following email address to get more information:
PublicSpace-COVID19@cityspacearchitecture.org