Adaptable Cities, Pandemic Mitigation and Crisis Preparedness

Cities and specifically large and very dense metropolitan areas have been severally impacted by COVID-19 particularly people’s health and wellbeing as well as local economies. There is an urgent need to gather insights, assess and reflect on how cities have and can be adapted, promptly and proactively, as to immediately mitigate the impact of any future pandemics while ensuring their urban, social and economic resilience and continuity as rich transactional spaces hosting all types of human, economic, financial and information flows. While we situate this research area across the G7, we will specifically focus on three continents _North America, Europe and Asia _ and zoom on four cities: New York City, London, Paris and Tokyo. The project ultimate goal is to co-design with a panel of built environment experts, a set of multi-scalar and evidence-based lessons as to promote proactive adaptability.

Research team: Professor Lauren Andres, University College London; Professor Marcus Zepf, Université Paris-Est; Professor Aya Sakai Tokyo City University