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Room 4: Public Spaces need to be totally redefined, carefully planned, and…
Room 4: Public Spaces need to be totally redefined, carefully planned, and under surveillance (eg. using tech) to create a safe city and harmonious society.
Space planning
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Understanding the site context of a space and the factors that surround it enables the public space to actively engage the specific community as opposed to applying a generic formula for public space
Medium scale
Gehl’s theory of Assembling spaces. When public spaces are carefully planned with taking into account things like pedestrian traffic and how people generally activate the space, it encourages the collision of activities and people.
When there is a clear organisation, it avoids having dispersion that Gehl mentions. In medium scale “people and activities are dispersed when buildings are placed at great distances from one another, with entrance areas and residences oriented away from each other.”
Large Scale
Dispersion on a large scale occurs according to Gehl when “in city planning – there is an effective dispersal of people and events when residences, public services, industries, and trade functions are placed separately on large individual tracts of land” connected by the transport line
Careful planning can mitigate this problem as spaces can be transformed and redefined to serve a dual purpose space (eg. High line)
Creating dual purpose spaces can be good as they can work on a normal situation and to adapt to potential New normals that arise in the future (current pandemic).
When we understand exactly how people collide, people use the spaces, planning measures can be taken for distancing and also on how to modify existing infrastructure to adapt with New normals.
Shift of Resources
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Preventing wasted efforts to treat the infected patients when efforts could be placed to do something else useful to help the country
Economic
High risk of potential community breakouts, if the situation gets out of hand a second circuit breaker might be put in place. This has heavy repercussions on the country's economy as prolonged damages will cause the country to fall into a deeper recession and a significant percentage of businesses to be forced to potentially close down (affecting the livelihood of many).
Preventing potential damage that can happen, better to ensure the situation is contained once and for all.
The longer the pandemic drags, the more it depletes our country's reserves spent to fight the pandemic.
Safety
Overall public health at stake, proper systems should be put in place in public spaces to cater to the new normal, before opening up.
Elevated safety measures should be in place for the long run, implementations need to be sustainable and manageable.
Implementing sensors to limit number of users of the space (Think: indicators to determine which spaces are currently at maximum usage quota, and provide alternative options for users to go to; like smart parking systems - where the number of vacant lots are indicated before drivers can choose which parking infrastructure to use)
Heat detection scanners to monitor body temperatures (Think: The use of technology to facilitate the process rather than having someone monitor on site all the time)
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Surveillance
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Necessary social activities such as walking to and from work/school and running errands can be taken out by the individual. Interactions are not essential or necessary in this case.
By making use of technology, it can easily ensure everyone’s safety with minimal manpower. (e.g. China uses drone to monitor whether the pedestrians are wearing masks and keeping social distance during covid-19 has effectively prevented further spreading of the virus)
With smart design and technology, it is not equivalent to saying there is no freedom. On the contrary, social activities can be carried out safely for everyone with minimal compromisation.
Kady Ho, Eunice Lim, Nidhi, Meng Cheng, Paris