There has been a lot of debate recently about the relationship between urban design and the current COVID-19 pandemic. A number of core issues have emerged: does urban density exacerbate an epidemic? How do we design working and living spaces for lockdown and social distancing? How can public spaces be adapted to facilitate "distanced conviviality"? Ultimately, how will the pandemic affect how we experience and design urban spaces going forward?

In this month's newsletter, we focus on this theme - urban design and pandemics - as an extension of our research in this area and our partnership with Non-Architecture, who has launched three new architecture competitions recently (see more below).  
 
News from the Network:  

• The launch of the EUKN’s renovated blog Urban Voices 

• The first two Urban Voices articles co-created with urban experts on the theme of urban resilience in the face of pandemics 

• Non-Architecture's research ecosystem: “Pandemic Society” continues, including three competitions on design for cities facing pandemics, for which the EUKN is a project partner  

News from the Urban World:  

• Upcoming webinars related to the COVID-19 outbreak and cities  

• Information about the European Capital of Innovation Award 2020  

• A call to contribute to the JRC’s Survey  looking into how the Covid-19 outbreak is affecting peoples' lives across Europe 

• Our second curated Lockdown Lectura list at the bottom of this newsletter, bringing you a short selection of the best reads on urban design and pandemics. 
   

Among other news, articles and studies. Read it now to find out more! 

Read the latest EUKN newsletter