How Cities Survive and Thrive

How should cities and public spaces evolve to prevent the spread of pathogens around us? On Episode 8 of the Reimagine Podcast, I am joined by three experts offering their ideas for the future of urban life and shared space: Microbiologist and immunologist Michael Schmidt discusses the powerful antimicrobial properties of copper, architect Joel Sanders explains how different spatial designs can make healthier behavior more intuitive, and Alice Charles, leader of the World Economic Forum’s Cities and Real Estate work streams, analyzes trends and ideas that will shape cities for decades to come.

I believe in the importance of cities as essential engines of innovation. While the pandemic has dealt a major blow to urban areas, cities aren’t going to become a thing of the past. People like being near other people — living and working together.

But I do think the pandemic will necessitate new kinds of urban and public spaces. As the world becomes more populated and more interconnected, we’ll need to prepare for future pandemics and build our communities such that we don’t have to shut down society because of a novel pathogen every few years.

That’s why I was excited to speak with three experts from different disciplines on the latest episode of my podcast, Reimagine. We talked about the future of public space, covering everything from microbes to urban planning. These conversations helped me appreciate that when it comes to reimagining cities, we already have a lot of tools — we just need to come together and use them.

The simplest tool we have is probably copper. Yes, copper. As microbiologist and immunologist Michael Schmidt explains, copper’s atomic composition makes it a powerful antimicrobial material that kills viruses and bacteria when they touch it. And it doesn’t degrade. According to Schmidt, there are handrails in Grand Central Terminal that are as antimicrobial as the day they were installed over 100 years ago. Imagine, then, if we just installed copper on every high touch surface like door knobs and elevator buttons in a public space. We’d constantly sanitize without even thinking about it.

Then there’s building design. Architect Joel Sanders is a leader in creating spaces that make healthy behavior more intuitive. He explains how something as simple as a central planter that divides entry and exit zones in a building can enable people to more effectively distance from one another. He also describes more detailed and subtle choices like manipulating airflow, or providing an app that lets people study a space and track how busy it is before entering so that they can become more comfortable flowing through it. Joel isn’t only scrambling to retrofit buildings in the midst of a pandemic; he’s also making public health a guiding principle as he designs spaces from the ground up.

Finally, Alice Charles, leader of the World Economic Forum’s cities and real estate work streams, sees urban areas as complex ecosystems. So many choices, from planning codes to funding streams, shape the look and feel of modern cities — and in turn the health and happiness of the people living in them. For example, she explains that several urban leaders are trying to design cities so that everyone is a short distance from all the services they need and can access them by walking, biking, or taking public transit.

When it comes to inclusivity, Alice notes, cities can design public housing units so they look the same as private housing units. “And when you mix those tenures together,” she says “you have much better societal outcomes.” She points to green spaces in urban areas as vital for air quality as well as mental and physical health. Many strands must come together to make cities that are hospitable, healthy, and resilient.

In 1950, 30% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 2050, the UN projects that number will be almost 70%. And throughout the isolation of the pandemic, it has become easier to understand why. We like being together.

We need to reimagine cities because cities are the future. As part of that reimagining, we must take steps to make the spaces we live in healthier and more resistant to the outbreaks of disease that have yet to come. There are so many choices we make when designing our cities and public spaces; if we can be more intentional with those choices, we can help urban life not only survive but thrive.