After Covid-19: urban design as spatial medicine

Rice, Louis

This article draws out key implications for urban designers from the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the relation between urban design and health. The entire world is facing the same acute health emergency of Covid-19 which is already impacting half of the global population, and as the majority of the world now inhabits urban settings, urban dwellers are the most affected. Urban Design already plays an important role in determining the health of urban populations but this relationship is often unclear, undervalued or ignored. The field of medicine is expanding to include all professionals who have an impact on the health of others, and this expanded field includes the urban design profession. After Covid-19, urban design ought to become a form of spatial medicine, whereby the design of built environments positively contributes and facilitates human and planetary health and wellbeing.