On Pandemics

Containing important information about the coronavirus, this comprehensive, easy-to-follow primer on pandemics, epidemics, and the panics they ignite around the world also shares solutions for a safer, healthier future.

Pandemics are potentially very destructive phenomena, and for that reason, they both fascinate and frighten us. And because they are shot through with uncertainty, they often become sites of contestation and conflict.

“Resilience vs Pandemics: Innovations in Public Places and Buildings” explores innovative solutions for architecture and public places during and after the pandemic. Additionally, the authors contribute to the documentation of architectural and social transformations that have been prompted by previous transmissible diseases, as this knowledge can inform responses to future pandemics. In this volume, the chapters present critical, exploratory, multi- and interdisciplinary, and cutting-edge research approaches; with a particular focus on the effects of COVID-19 and other highly transmissible diseases on the design, use, performance, and perception of the built environment, particularly at the building scale. This volume aims to organize a collection of scientific studies, reviews, analysis, recommendations, and solutions in the fields of urban design, architecture, design, landscape design, etc.

Pandemics such as Covid-19, Ebola, SARS, and influenza, as well as the necessary measures for their research, prevention, and treatment, raise a number of ethical issues that confront science, the medical profession, and health policy.