Resistant Cities. Urban Planning as Means for Pandemic Prevention (RECIPE).

The main research question, of the RECIPE project is the following: How could urban planning be used as a means in anticipating infectious diseases and thus preventing further epidemic outbreaks? This one hour and a half session’s main aim was to explore how urban planning can be a means of promoting health and well-being through three perspectives (i.e., Disease and disease control perspectives, Health and well-being promotion perspectives and Planetary Health perspective).

Virtual Place

Juhlasali

Date

Start: 16.06.2022
End: 16.06.2022

Partners

This workshop begun by a quick description about the RECIPE project (its main objectives, collaborators, the project consortium, etc.). A quick introduction about historical and contemporary healthy urban planning approaches was also given by Prof. Helka-Liisa Hentilä. The link between urbanization and various infectious diseases was explored, through some concrete examples of pandemics (Black deaths, cholera, tuberculosis, etc.). We’ve learned that urban planning could be a tool for combating disease and illness (e.g through Water and Sewerage systems and waste management, buildings’ configuration, home cleaning, separation of functions within the house, etc.) but also a means of promoting health and well-being. After the introduction, the workshop began.

The principal question addressed in the workshop was the following: How should the post-industrial European Cities be planned and designed to sustain better citizens’ health and well-being? Three questions were asked to the participants: Q1. How should the european cities be planned and re-designed, if the aim is: A. Disease and disease control perspectives; B. Health and Well-being perspectives; C. planetary health perspectives. 20-25 minutes were given to answer these questions in heterogeneous groups of 5 people. The second question was “What should change in urban planning and design for the vision (themes A, B, C) to become a reality? The same amount of time was also given and finally the third part was dedicated (10’) to a wrap-up about future steps for citizens, decision-makers and researchers.

  • 32 Staff members (UNIC)
  • 22 students
  • 3 associated partners
  • 9 others

The discussion in the workshop was lively and in the end discussion, the participants emphasized the importance of planetary health in urban planning. The means to develop more sustainable lifestyles and living environments were considered to require both individual efforts and collaboration, as well as systemic change in the society. Furthermore, the participants stressed the importance of including citizens, decision-makers and professionals in the discussions and processes, where the changes are made.

Tags

UNIC CityLabs | Post-Industrial Cities

Themes

Post-industrial Cities

Type of Case

Workshop

Languages

English

Organizing unic universities

university logo

Cookie Settings