A collaboration with with Emergency Architecture & Human Rights (EAHR), WHO and Think-Fast: A collective urban response to COVID-19.This talk focus on the spatial challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the notion of ‘density’, which is at the core of most of the current discussions between urban practitioners and researchers: housing density and minimum standards, <highlight>urban density</highlight> and the risks within overcrowded refugee camps and informal settlements, social distancing and access to public space, etc.We want to know, first of all, if density deserves the given relevance regarding cities and the spread of viruses and other diseases, and how density interacts with other variables, such as socio-spatial segregation, housing construction standards, multiple layers of spatial and socio-economic vulnerability, etc.

EXPERTS IN THE VIDEO:

Dr Francisco Vergara Perucich
o Chilean architect, urban planner and researcher
o From July '19, he has taken the position as director of Centre of Production of Space (producciondelespacio.org), a research cluster in Universidad de Las Américas investigating urban economy, critical urbanisms and socio-spatial practices.
o The CPE uses the intellectual work of Henri Lefebvre and other marxists and neo-marxist approaches as the main theoretical framework for its investigations; to deliver outcomes searching for spatial justice, illuminating contradictions in urban life.
o Profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1930-4691​

Dr Emmanuel Raju
o Background in Economics, Political Science and Sociology
o Holds a PhD from Lund University, Sweden. focussed on Disaster Recovery Coordination post-tsunami in India.
o From 2014-2016, he was part of Changing Disasters research project at the University of Copenhagen and was on the Core organising team of the North European Conference on Emergency and Disaster Studies (NEEDS) in 2015 and 2017.
o Currently, Associate Professor Department of Public Health  University of Copenhagen, and visiting Associate Professor at the African Centre for Disaster Studies, North-West University, South Africa.
o Currently also co-chairs the Copenhagen centre for disaster research- inter-institutional research center COPE linking disaster research and education (Master of Disaster Management).
o Profile: https://publichealth.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2F469585

MODERATOR:

Armando Caroca
Think-Fast: A collective urban response to COVID-19

ABOUT PANDEMIC RESILIENT CITIES TALKS
The series of talks will focus on the role and position of Architects and Planning Practitioners in preparing for Pandemic Resilient Cities where basics such as access to safe housing, space, clean air, food and water is not considered a privilege but a basic Human Right.

While everyone will be affected by the challenges emerging from the current crisis, the impact is hitting hard on the most vulnerable ones: the elderly population, migrants, displaced populations, slum dwellers and the so-called ‘low-skilled’ workforce, who rely solely on their everyday income. However, these vulnerabilities aren’t new and were not merely caused by the Pandemic, but gradually accumulated by multiple political, economic, social and spatial factors, that reduced our preparedness for such a scenario and left Millions of people vulnerable to health crises and disasters.

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